In SAO
by dark shadowed rose
Summary: Neither of them were meant to be there. Both were there by chance. But both were going to fight their way out of this strange world. So of course they would be drawn together. M to be safe. Inuyasha/Bleach/Sword Art Online crossover. Kagome/Ichigo pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**In SAO**

**Disclaimer: what can I say? After watching SAO I fell in love with it. Amazing! I would sign up even if I only had one life. Actually I'd probably sign up because of that. But I thought what if Kagome and Ichigo met in there? And so, this was born.**

**Chapter One November 6th 2022 12:31 p.m.**

Kagome looked away from her homework to the door, she was frustrated. One more week finish to this and she was barely a quarter of the way: on top of that she had two other major projects and general classwork. But today had been a bad day from the moment she got up. She had a small headache, Souta had friends over so they could all get in on the first day of Sword Art Online. A virtual reality RPG. And they were of course excited, which also meant loud. Now someone was knocking at the door. "WHAT?!"

The door opened and Souta stuck his head in, at sixteen he'd had a part time job for more then a year and had bought the gaming system with his own money. He did this on top of keeping high grades in school and helping around the shrine. She had only manged good grades in college and helping around the shrine. Admittedly the amount of work she did around the shrine took up enough time to call it a part time job she just didn't really get paid. But on the other hand she didn't have to pay for college and her mom didn't ask for rent. But it made her feel useless, twenty-one; still at home and barely keeping up in school. She felt like a waste of space. After the well closed when she was almost sixteen settling back into a normal life had been hard. It was still hard. The fights, the demons. Some days it seemed like a dream, but it was one she still wished she was living.

"Kagome Haro can't make it, he had to go to work, but he'd brought his NerveGear over yesterday so we have an extra helmet. I know you don't normally like games that much but I thought you might like this over the normal controller. It's gonna be just me, Daiki and Kenji."

Kagome held in a groan, she needed to get this done. She really needed to. But her focus was crap, she had a headache, and Souta looked really hopeful. She closed her eyes, guilt she was all too familiar with started up again. She had missed almost a year of Souta's life traveling and even now back firmly in the future the two of them were so busy they didn't spend much time together. What would it hurt to go goof off for a few hours with him and his friends? Nothing. She'd still have the rest of the week to finish this up. Besides killing a few things would probably do wonders for her stress level.

"Sure Souta, I'll come join you for the game."

Souta grinned, happiness clear. "Come on then we can log on in less then half an hour."

Kagome set her pencil to the side and closed her book, and closed her computer. Standing she stretched, and followed her brother into his room where she found him and his two friends sitting on a mix of blankets and pillows, Souta was on his bed and all the helmets were plugged in. To be polite she greeted Souta's two friends; Daiki was the biggest reason her brother was so over the moon about Sword Art Online. Daiki's elder brother Toshio had been a beta tester. The boy was rather muscular and had normal enough features as well as a touch of a crush on her. Kenji on the other hand was one of the tallest boys she'd ever met and was rather cute with his floppy hair cut and smirk. Souta of course was her brother and they were about the same height now. She was sure he was going to be taller then her.

"So since I wasn't planning to play want to give me some general information?"

Daiki brightened and start explaining in an hyper way.

She just picked up the highlights. One hundred levels, millions of monsters, swords were pretty much the most common weapons, but there were spears, and axes. No bows. Or even crossbows. She'd have to use a sword while playing. Ten thousand new and beta players were signing on today. The fact was the game was made by the man who'd made the nerve gear in the first place so this should work far better then any of the games that could be played on NerveGear up till now. There were more quests then monsters and several more things that flew right over her head. Five minutes before 1:00 p.m. they put the helmets on and made themselves comfortable on the floor or bed.

Then they got on. Kagome found herself staring at a screen that told her she need a user name and more information. First she entered her measurements with the helmet like she was told to, then she stared blankly trying to come up with a user name. She didn't do this often and she didn't want to use her screen chat name. In the end the only thing she came up with was archer. So typing that in she added a password. Her father's nickname for her with the first and last letter capitalized.

Then saying link start like she'd heard the others say she found the screen telling her it was testing her five senses and then in a blur of color she found herself standing in a huge courtyard. Looking about she was stunned, this felt almost real. There was something lacking to her. She inhaled, she could smell and taste the air here. The wind could be felt on her face. She touched the breast plate her character was wearing and could feel leather armor beneath her fingers. What was missing?

Someone touched her shoulder. Spinning she found three men facing her. It took a second but she realized this must be Souta and his friends. "Hi everyone."

The one on her far right with blond hair grinned. "Hey Kagome."

She knew this was probably Souta. "How do we tell who is who?"

The one on her far left smirked. Lifting his hand to about shoulder height he said. "You should be able to see a green bar about here there's a name in front of it."

Looking closely she saw his read Daono. Daiki. She smiled, "Thanks for the help Daono." she looked over at the middle guys, by process of elimination she knew he was Kenji. His screen name read 'Suke-Oniki.' weird name. Probably had a story behind it. Looking over she was curious what her brother's screen name was. Seeing Inuyasha she groaned. "Really?"

Souta blinked confused and then realized. He chuckled. "I forgot I hadn't told you about that. Here I'm the great and powerful Inuyasha!"

Kagome couldn't stop the face palm. It made sense, the name of the only sword fighter her brother knew and admired. "I'm only calling you Yasha got it?"

Souta pouted but shrugged. "What ever you say Archer."

Kagome made a face. "It was what came to mind."

Souta stuck his tongue out at her. "If that's the case you might as well have called yourself Miko and been done with it.

Daono spoke up, "What are you guys talking about?"

She looked at Souta and he looked back. As one they said, "Nothing."

The boy looked between the two of them with a bemused expression, before shrugging. "Okay. Well how about instead of arguing about nothing, we get going. We need weapons, and then some small quest or something."

Kagome looked at Souta and agreed.

It took three and half hours but they managed to get equipped and complete a short quest giving them all the means to level up. Kagome had to admit she would be willing to play again. This had been fun. Asking Daono about how to get out she went to her menu and and the three buttons there like he said there should be but the last one wasn't labeled. She touched it and nothing happened. A chill crept across her skin.

She had been having a bad day. But to find she was trapped in a game would be a whole new level of weird. Trying to contact the game master she gave it a second but when nothing happened she knew for the moment at least she was trapped. Hoping it was a glitch she waved her menu away. "You know what never mind. Lets go kill a few more wolves."

The boys she was with all grinned at her, but only Souta seemed to realize she wasn't saying something. He at least had the tact to not say anything. Kagome sighed. It was almost five and she had a horrible feeling things were going to go bad fast. After the time she had spent on the far side of the well she had learned her instincts were very rarely wrong.

**12:03 p.m. Same Day**

Ichigo picked up his cell phone seeing Chad's number. "Hey, what's up?"

His friend's voice came through the phone. _"Well you know my roommate Kawano? He has NerveGear and together the two of us managed to get our hands on Sword Art Online. But he had to go home since his grandmother is in the hospital and I know you had said it looked interesting and I thought you might like to join me for opening day."_

Ichigo looked at the clock, an hour till you could log in. He did have homework he was suppose to be doing... but there was sword fighting... "I'm in. I'll be there in half an hour."

"_Good see you then."_

**5:24 p.m.**

Ichigo grinned at Chad, together they had just manage to complete a small quest. It had been a lot fun even if Chad was the one who got the points to level up. "I'm really glad you asked me here. I still think it's funny you chose Chad as your name."

Chad shrugged. "It's a nickname and it's something I'm use to answering to. It makes sense. Besides _Zangetsu, _it's not like you have room to talk about interesting screen names."

Ichigo shrugged, Chad had him there. "I should probably start thinking about heading out, it's a trip to get back home and Yuzu's cooking."

Then the whole game rang with the sound of ringing bells, it was an ominous sound with the sky darkening with sunset. Turning back towards town he glanced at Chad; Chad looked as confused as he did.

That was when a teleport moved them back to the main square.

Standing there, confused. Ichigo let his eyes drift across the masses. Many seemed scared and even more seemed to think this was just part of the first day. But certain faces jumped out him; there was a boy not far from him and Chad with a dark look on his face, his friend with pink hair seemed confused. A girl with three boys looked angry like she already knew what was happening. There were others but the sky turning red called his attention. After the whole sky had turned red, stuff oozed from cracks in the sky till it formed a red cloaked figure. He looked out over them and Ichigo knew this was going to be bad. The voices of the crowd drifted to his his ears: 'why doesn't he have a face? Is he the game master? What's going? This must be a welcome ceremony.' Looking through the crowd again he noticed the same faces, all of them knew what he knew. They weren't getting out unscathed.

"Attention players!"

The crowd quieted.

"Welcome to my world."

Ichigo knew right away this had to be the game's creator, this meant the game had changed. Why else would they be here?

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world."

He closed his eyes, he had the feeling they had just been taken hostage. He wasn't super into games like this but in theory it seemed possible. If they couldn't log out... their bodies would slowly starve but if put into a hospital they could last years. Like a lot of years. But why... what could Kayaba gain from this?

"I'm sure you've already noticed that the log out button is missing from the main menu." The figure even pulled a giant menu up and showed them all. "But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat... this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online."

Ichigo opened his eyes and looked to Chad, his friend's mouth was open ever so slightly and the normal calm had vanished. He knew from the icy stillness he was feeling he was in shock. But it didn't matter this game wasn't going to let them leave. It didn't, the only question that mattered to him was how did they get out?

"You can not log out of SAO on yourselves. And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

The out cry from the crowd almost surprised Ichigo, why deny it? If the helmet can read your brain waves enough to tell you if you're eating, fighting or talking of course it could damage your brain. That was something that had freaked Karin out when the NerveGear came out. Sure it was safe, that wasn't going to happen by accident but this was on purpose and that was the man who made this stuff telling them. But Ichigo supposed he'd never been one to deny reality, ghosts? Of course they were real. Monsters? Those existed too. He had put his life on the line before this wouldn't change anything.

"Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning..."

Ichigo stopped a groan, why did people have to be so stupid? Why would you test that?

"and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world."

Ichigo was aghast, two hundred people and thirteen people? But he started doing the math. Ten thousand people, world wide. Unless there was a press release right after one... one thirty till it gets out. Yeah but there would be some people who couldn't log in right at one. So two, everyone's in but not everyone watches the news, probably at least of hundred of those deaths were accidents. The rest were the family going through denial and killing said family member. He predicted a high number of suicides for the next couple of months.

Screens popped up around the giant figure, and he went on. "As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game."

Ichigo froze, that was all the guy wanted? Them to clear the game. To beat his world? Why? This was some place he really could have demanded anything, they call him god, send him every pretty girl in the game. He could have demanded any price and he just wanted them to clear his game?

Ichigo found himself thinking of all the friends he and Chad had on the outside. Ishida, Orihime, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro and all the others. Every single one had at one point been alone. He himself had to credit all of them with stopping his own loneliness. Was that why Kayaba had done this? So he wouldn't be alone?

"But I want you to remember this clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game."

Ichigo winced. That was a high price to pay, but it made sense, if everyone could die and come back again and again, they wouldn't try their hardest, people wouldn't work as hard to be a team and people would try stupid things.

"If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost. And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape. To complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, floor one. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100 and you will clear the game."

The crowd all turned to one another and asked some stupid questions, Ichigo just looked at Chad and the two of them swore an oath silently to get out together. Neither of them said anything but they started walking to the edge of the courtyard, the moment Kayaba was done talking they were heading off for a another quest, they needed to become stronger in order to win this.

"Finally. I've added a present from me to your item storage. Please see for yourselves."

Ichigo opened his menu and pulled up Items, in it he found a mirror listed. He selected it and stared into it. The bland brown haired guy staring back at him wasn't the him he expected to see.

That was when people one by one in the square were swallowed up by blue light. The pink headed guy that reminded him of Renji was one of the first, the guy's friend was started and called his name even if the noise of the crowd stopped him from hearing it. Then blue light flared next to him and he turned realizing it had engulfed Chad, then light flared up from under his feet.

It faded quickly and the mirror in his hand reflected orange at him. His face was staring back at him. He looked over and found Chad staring at him looking flabbergasted. He scanned the crowd again, the noise was growing louder as more and more people realized they were wearing their real face. The girl with the three boys jumped out at him again, she was a real beauty. Not the basic female face available. Now wearing her own face he noticed her eyes, blue. The boy standing closest to her probably was a brother, they looked too much alike to be anything else even if he didn't have blue eyes. She looked determined and the boys with her afraid. Very afraid. She however just had a gleam in her eye much like his own, she wanted to win.

The two guys he'd noticed, the one that had previously had pink hair now had red, it was no wonder he'd thought of Renji even if it wasn't the same crimson. The other guy now looked younger and cuter by Karin's standers, she liked guys like that, no matter how she tried to deny it. He scanned the crowd again almost amused by all the people panicking, this was happening they just had to get over it. A big guy who stood almost a head above the whole crowd looked a lot like Chad but bald.

"Right now, you're probably wondering, 'why?' Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason... To create this world and intervene in it."

Ichigo nodded slowly, this guy had made this world so he could leave the real one but he didn't want to be alone. In the end he brought all of them here so he wouldn't be alone.

"And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. Good luck, players."

Then his form blurred and the red slime vanished back up into the sky leaving them in a the oncoming darkness. The square rang with the cries, and the sounds of fear, most demanded to be returned or freed but Ichigo knew it to be pointless. "Come on Chad, time to go."

Together the two of them left the square running for the next town because the fields where they had gotten their quest early in the day would be swarmed with other players soon.

**January 2th Floor 5 **

Kagome looked over her group of five, in addition to her brother and his friends she had picked up two more players, so in all they were six strong. Ready for the front lines, at least as ready as she could get them. She still had doubts about how mentally ready everyone else was, Souta probably was the best off but he knew about her fights and had heard Inuyasha's stories.

But today was going to be something different.

This wasn't going to be following maps or advice, this was going to be map making, they were doing this on their own for others. Kagome had to admit to herself she was glad her brother had asked her in for the first day. This kind of life was almost like coming home. If when they took a break she could have gone to see her mother it would have almost been like old times. And it meant something to her. Deep down she knew she was better at this than playing school and house. She had become an adventurer. Souta had tried to say sorry at the end of the first week and she worried he still felt that way but if he was going to have an adventure she was glad she could be by his side.

The doors opened and she looked over her group: Yasha, also known as her brother stepped forward to stand by her a strong look on his face. She continued to look over the other four; Daono look nervous but held his sword without a shaking hand. Suke-Oniki looked ready to taste blood with his two axes. Naruto looked back at her calmly enough and his friend Captain with his spear was looking past her into the dungeon.

Going in Kagome had to admit the dark was disconcerting as was the cave feel, she had a sinking feeling the monsters here would be cave things, blind or slimy or both. Or bats.

Sure enough the first monster was a bat, she dispatched with a swing and some help from Yasha and Naruto, between the three of them it died. The next thing was a cave worm, and on they went. A break for lunch and a brief vote to see if they were done for the day they all agreed to go on. More worms, and more bats Kagome hoped there wouldn't be another cave level like this. At the end of day they trudged out but despite being weary they were in good spirits, they had only taken a few injuries and no one had gone down more then a hundred points and with three or four hundred each it seemed to be a good day.

The next day, January 3th, wasn't; After finding the floor boss and Captain taking a hundred and fifty point hit protecting her and Naruto as they turned to run away so they could go and spread the news Kagome met this idiot.

She stared at the spiky haired man, he'd introduced himself as Kibaou and his bar said as much. But the longer he talked the more she desired to hit him. He was weak where it mattered, she could see that, he blamed others for his mistakes and hated Beta-testers never mind most were super helpful and the ones that weren't couldn't be blamed for hiding after the way some players reacted. Like this guy. "Will you shut up already?!"

He stopped and stared at her, a nasty kinda of gleam in his eye. "Who are you girl?"

She had heard that from monsters far scarier then the ones here, he was a tadpole in the pond of nasty glares. Leveling a glare she knew to be nastier she answered. "The one in charge of the group who found the boss room. We brought this intel and and we've all read the book and he wasn't using the sword the book says he should be using. He's using a spiked club. I think you should sit down and shut up long enough for my group to tell you all we saw. Besides we don't have to listen to you bucko."

He was gapping in shock and Kagome wanted to laugh in his face. He reminded her of all the narrow minded idiots she had met on her travels before. "Captain report what you noticed."

She ignored her brother trying to hide his laughter at the way she took the man in charge of twenty guys down a notch.

Standing straight he spoke loudly so the thirty or so other players could listen. "Besides a club he carried a dagger and had four large heath bars, the club in one hit dealt me a hundred and twenty-five points of damage. That is all I really noticed."

Kagome went on, "Yasha." Her brother stepped forward and in a more casual manner answered. "I noticed farther back in the room there seemed to be more slugs they're just slow moving and I bet are there to finish off any hurt people left alone but if they had poison or something could be dangerous. Other wise I have nothing more to add."

"Daono?"

"Nothing to add."

"Suke-Oniki?"

"I bet the doors close so people should have teleport crystals to use if their seriously injured."

Kagome had noted the lines on the ground as well, but hadn't though of the doors closing. "Naruto?"

"I believe the slugs will either move faster when the doors are shut or be poisonous. We didn't get all the way in so we wouldn't have seen it if it's the case but we've already noticed the underlings of a boss don't fight all out till he's hurt."

The other group leader nodded and Kibaou also reluctantly agreed this was something they would have to keep in mind those possibilities, but that would be the morning's problem.

**January 4th Fifth Floor Boss Room**

Kagome glanced at Souta, he was holding his own but he was down in the yellow and so was she. Naruto was still good, Captain was down some but not quite yellow, Suke-Oniki was almost red and Daono was some where she couldn't pick him out... there. Yellow as well. The clearing party had lost two men so far, one when they found out the Dagger became the Cave King's main weapon when he was down two bars, and it did another twenty five or fifty points of damage than the club. The other simply because he hadn't upped his skills enough or had bad luck. But she had noticed in this fight a kid, her brother's age or younger, dressed in black he was handling himself very well.

The slugs had turned out nasty, they tried to eat you and if they did they'd exploded doing damage to the person they ate and anyone in proximity. So in the end that had been a surprise but kinda of cool, if it couldn't kill you.

The Cave King was down into the red on his last bar, if he had another special attack it was going to come now. The dagger began to burn red and Kagome rushed to take a place in front of her players and her quick movement caught it's attention, targeting her. Kagome didn't understand it but she knew what it was going to do. Charging forward she attacked disrupting the attack, dodging most of a blow she almost wished she could feel pain. This getting hurt with no pain thing was very strange, it didn't make sense to her. You could feel the impact, or the brush against you but there was simply no pain. You could get the wind knocked out of you but that was it. She had lost another thirty points, she picked that out of the corner of her eye on her little stats screen. She was almost in the red.

Bounding forward she activated her skill and sliced deep into the belly of the beast. Two others leaped and took their chunks, Captain and Naruto were next and there was only a little more red to go. Charging Kibaou and another with her they all cut at him, Kibaou was knocked back two hundred points dropping from his score, he went from almost totally heathy to deep in yellow almost red. But her skill and the other guy's was good enough. The boss broke apart and faded.

Cheers broke out and Kagome sheathed her long sword, the big congrats sign appeared and then to her surprise the bonus item screen appeared before her. Kagome blinked at it surprised, than she clicked to open to see what it was, that was when the growing silence around her alerted her to something being wrong. Lifting her head she saw her group took up a support position around her while Kibaou stalked up to her. A glower on his face.

Three feet away he stopped, with harsh glare he declared his stupidity for all to see. "You're a Beater!"

Kagome frowned, "I don't know the term."

"You must be a Beta-tester and you're cheating!"

While she heard her boys readying themselves for a fight she put a stop to it with a laugh. "How do you figure?"

The idiot's face was growing red and not just from anger, with a cool head he could talk the talk pretty well and he knew what to say for others to listen but she'd seen real leaders and this was a child. A charismatic one but a baby to the leadership role.

"You found the boss room, you knew what the book said and knew it was wrong. You knew how far to get away from the slugs, and you managed to stop the Boss' attack. Therefor you had to know what he was doing! That all being true you must be a beta-tester and the numbers of hits you've taken and the fact you're not in the red says you have been sand bagging, making you a cheater!"

Kagome snorted. "You truly are an idiot. I found the boss room by accident, Daono saw the short cut crack we just explored it. I guessed how far was safe to be from the slugs." She wasn't going to tell him but her previous battle field experience had been behind that call. "As for stopping the Boss' attack that was again a guess, it reminded me of something from an anime I once watched and the main character beat him by doing what I did."

Not quite the whole truth but close enough, her adventures would make a great anime. "As for the sand bagging charge that is no more true then any of us can say. To be a front liner you have to be on top and that does mean taking more for yourself. Besides almost my whole group is in the yellow. You can't honestly say we've held back in this fight. So if you can't say anything smarter then that shut the hell up! I have no patience for fools."

Everyone that had tensed when he accused her relaxed, the boy in black quietly was going on to the next level for the town opening. She was going to follow his example, but after she looked at that bonus item. It was a higher level shield, something she couldn't use. She could give it to her group or she could further prove her point by giving it to the the guy who'd helped her finished the boss.

Going over to him she saw his name was Atsushi. "Hey Atsushi, would you like to have this? I can't use it."

He turned and smiled at her, glad for her offer. "That would probably be very nice." He looked at the name and said; "Yeah I'll take it but not for free, you got it fair and square. How does thirty-five col and a healing crystal sound?"

"I'll take it." She made the trade and noted Kibaou scowling at her from behind his men who were walking into the new town. Dropping back to her group she briskly said, "Lets go on into a new town, maybe it'll have a better inn."

Souta was smirking at her, he knew exactly why she had offered it up for free, she had killed most any doubts the group had about her being a proper beater. But Kagome had to wonder just a little bit if she wasn't. Manipulating them like that. Being a pretty girl helped too, aside from clothes and what every makeup you were wearing the first day, your look didn't change without gold.

**January 10****th**** Sixth Floor Boss Fight**

Kagome stared at the Boss; his name was Snake Charmer. It fit, this had been a jungle dungeon. Vine Snakes, Giant Spiders, and the Jungle Tigers. So of course the dungeon master would be a giant snake man. Oh and his underlings would be Quick Snakes. That stun ability was a freaking pain. Blocking the strike, Kagome let Naruto switch in, his hit knocked the Quick Snake dead. Considering they had hit it four times it was about time.

The clearing that was the boss room in the dungeon was crowded between the snakes, the main boss who was like fifteen feet tall and the fifty some fighters. She searched the crowd for the others and found Souta and Daono finishing off another snake, Captain was helping some other guy heal himself enough to get back up. Apparently a number of people... well to be honest everyone she talked to said getting hurt here was more of mental strain then anything else. Captain after he'd gone down into the red swore he hadn't been able to think clearly enough till prompted to remember he had a healing draft.

Chopping through the neck of a Quick snake Kagome twirled and caught it a second time across the chest or belly since it was a snake. It vanished and she ducked as a guy who had the misfortune to fail a dodge and got caught on the Snake Charmer's blade sending him flying. Rushing forward she took his place in the mob around the boss, he wasn't going down easily. Not that any of the boss' had, but he seemed particularly slippery.

Kagome took her chance and attacked dealing a bit more damage to the Snake Charmer, others charged and Kagome found herself trying to get out of their way. A quick look showed her Souta had found Suke-Oniki in the melee and they were watching the other's back. Someone was flung into her and knocked both of them to the ground. Breath knocked out of her, she looked at the guy pinning her and found his expression to be a dazed and lost like he had no clue about what had just happened. Focusing her eyes she found his name to be Takeo and then to her horror she found the line that showed you how much life you had left blinked empty. For an instant her eyes met the gray-brown eyes of the male on top of her and then he broke apart.

Something inside her froze, he had died in her lap. She hadn't be able to help. Part of her was yelling for her to get up, she needed to get up. It was dangerous to sit on the floor. But something in her had changed. She didn't know what yet, but something had clicked. She had known people died. Lots of people had died in the last months, according to the memorial stone two thousand and probably five hundred by now had died. This had become a new life. She had done her best to protect her group, to ready them and she found in the heat of battle she had ignored her own preparedness.

Maybe it was because there was no pain. Maybe it was because she had missed the rush of fighting. Maybe it was because on a surface level she could ignore death. Her past had done that for her. No matter how her friends had tried to protect her from the bodies, or from the gore in the past it had been there. Always been there. But here it was too neat. No blood. No bodies left. Nothing for a grave. She'd always had graves before.

She had forgotten the horrible emptiness of seeing someone die.

Something had changed.

Something felt different.

What had just happened she didn't know but she did know the battle wasn't won yet, The Snake Charmer still had almost a full bar of life yet. Charging in she lost herself in the flow of the battle, and when the monster had been killed and everyone was cheering she found herself sheathing her sword the change inside bothering her. She was sad that guy had died. She was sad all the players thus far had died. They thought they were signing up for a game and got more than they could handle. But that wasn't it.

Kagome's screen showed her she had gained a level taking her to 17, a large number of coins, half a dozen snake skins for armor or clothing. Pressing accept she closed out her screen and went to find her group, they would sleep in the new town.

Then joining a number of the people that were going up Kagome was amused by how many greeted her, calling 'good job Archer or your group saved our butts'. Speaking of which she owed the kid she had noticed in the Fifth floor boss fight. He'd saved her bacon when she had gotten bitten and been stunned. The other two deaths aside from the guy who'd died in her lap had been when after being stunned they got surrounded and been unable to fight back.

That night after a loud dinner with the boys who were still high after the win she had gone to her room; she was the only girl and got her own room, the others all agreed even if she could have shared with Souta. Sitting on her bed in the pajamas she had bought with her win money after the 5th floor boss fight, she figured out the change that was bugging her. She had forgotten the true weight of knowing you were risking your life for strangers. That man dying in her lap reminded her she wasn't just fighting to get her brother home, she was fighting for every single person here that didn't want to be. Do to the fact the game's economy was flawed not every player even if they wanted could not gain the resources to fight frontline.

That was one of the reasons people did hold the name beta-tester against others, first was 'why didn't they see this coming?' But the second was a large number of them had gone out by themselves or in very small groups to the best spots for XP without telling the truly new people how to even use their attack skills. She'd lucked out Daono's brother had been a Beta-tester he knew with a bit of practice how to use skills he'd taught the rest of them. But most had not been so lucky.

That was also something held against Beta-testers was most thought less people would have died in the first month if more help and information had been given.

Kagome personally thought that was bull. A number of people had totally lost their heads in the beginning, there were some suicides, and a number of people had seemed to forget they only had this life left. No coming back. And a number more just had no ability to judge what they could actually do verses what they were trying to do. Not to mention the players who attacked other players.

Flopping back on the bed Kagome tried to come to grips with the new but familiar weight she was feeling. That was when a knock on her door startled her. "Archer?"

Kagome sat back up, it was her brother. "Come in Yasha." That had been one of the hardest things, remembering to use the nick names. The door opened and in walked her brother in his set of normal clothes, he shut the door behind him and walked over to the chair in the corner of the room. The silence hung in the air for a minute. Kagome wasn't sure what he'd come in here for and didn't know where to start. Last time they had talked alone at night like this was when he'd tried to say sorry for getting her into this.

He spoke abruptly. "Something happened in the fight. You've been distant."

Kagome sighed. He was her brother it made sense he'd noticed. "I just remembered the full extent of reality."

Her brother cocked an eyebrow. Then he spoke slowly. "At first I was worried you were angry with me for getting you into this. Then I noticed you were enjoying this. You missed fighting. I haven't seen you this focused since before the well closed. But now that edge seems to have been dulled. What happened?"

Kagome wasn't sure how to answer, so groaned instead and flopped back on the bed. The reality of it was what happened was in the past. "Souta I know when you were younger and I was going through the well you thought it was awesome. I got to see real demons, make friends with things out of a story. The time we fought the Noh Mask you were frightened, very much so as I remember it. I was scared too but the part I remember most is the next night you asked if it was always like that. I told you no, but I lied. Not a little white lie but a big whopper of a lie. It was the Feudal Era. Hundreds of thousands died through out that part of history. Before we met Miroku... no the day we met Shippo I was eating lunch with Inuyasha and Myoga in an old battle field only six or so months old. And it had taken place over an older battle. There were skeletons half buried in dirt and I was eating lunch."

Souta stared at her and she half laughed. "It bothered me at the time, but by the time the well closed it didn't, not really. Half the time it seemed like rather then meeting living people we were helping the dead."

She sat up quickly trying to drive her point home. "This is fun to me. The gore there was always present. I almost always was finding a spot of dried blood on my clothes or my backpack and I spent countless hours scrubbing it out so Mom and you never knew the truth. I know Grandpa did but he always was proud of what I was doing and facing. He told me I was tough girl for going back to that world that seemed so uncivilized. Here there is no blood. Never. The red sprays from monsters amuse me, blood gets on you and stains you. The truth is blood smells. The coppery iron smell is unmistakable. It doesn't smell here. I'm sorry people have died here Souta, I'm sorry they were tricked and got in over their heads, but it matters no more to me. I realized that today when the third player to die died on top of me. I remembered the days in the Feudal era and what death there looked like and I remembered as much fun as I'm having remembering my travels there are others as weak as the villagers I remember so fondly. They're counting on us."

Her bother looked at her and there wasn't anything that implied he was angry with her for confession. If anything he seemed relieved. "Kagome I'm glad you feel that way, because I was feeling guilty for not caring about the people who've died. I don't know them and so it almost doesn't seem real. Like you said death is so much more then fading bodies. I was also thinking back to the Noh Mask so many people died because it got out. I was remembering the smell of the body the mask was controlling... I'm glad to know I'm not the only one enjoying the fights. That was why I started doing this. I can feel the effort I'm putting into living and life tastes all the sweeter for it. I..."

Kagome got up and hugged her brother, maybe they weren't normal and they probably would be considered strange when they got out. Of course, if the pace of floor clearing was anything to go by; They were going to be here for a long time. Meaning their bodies would be skin and bones and counseling was probably going to be required, she just hoped they didn't get flagged as crazy.

**January 20th Floor 8**

Ichigo sighed, and tilted his head back to look up through the trees. The Autumn Forest was beautiful. Chad was munching on his lunch beside him and for a moment Ichigo wished he and Chad had made some other friends here. But nope, it was the two of them. They had both agreed rather quickly that they wouldn't join the boss raids. The plans were so sketchy and frankly the other players up front were often overly noisy or demanded you join their guild. After the almost disaster of the fourth floor boss hunt Ichigo and Chad had agreed to stay up front as explorers but to not join the Boss raids, turn their maps over if they found the boss room but no more.

It was frustrating, Ichigo wished they could clear floors faster, his sisters were on the outside. He was leaving all his other friends alone. But there wasn't more he could really be doing. Save joining the boss raiders.

But that was dangerous. He wasn't okay being someone else's solider. Besides since he and Chad were doing it together they didn't get a lot of respect, he'd heard the other players accusing him and Chad of being Beaters. Which wasn't true in the sense they meant it, but it was close enough. Real life experience in fighting meant him and Chad may only have so much on their stats but their reactions were levels beyond them. Meaning they kind of were cheating.

He sighed, and glanced over. Chad had finished his food too. It was time to get back to work. "Let's go Chad."

His friend sighed but got back to his feet. Ichigo hopped to his feet and they readied their weapons and walked off deeper into the unexplored woods.

**January 31th Inn Common Room on Floor 10**

Kagome smiled, watching the celebrations. They had beaten floor nine just today and were partying in the town on floor 10. More then two months and they had beaten nine floors. She knew everyone there was so happy to be living they weren't thinking of the future but she was. This was going to take them years. There was ninety-one floors to go.

She had to admit she was wondering what else they'd face. Floor 7's monsters had been mostly normal animals turned monstrous. Giant Pigs, Evil Owls, Bastard Boars; very different from the first floor's Frenzy Boars. Then the floor boss had been Mukesh, other wise called the Boar King. A giant's body with a boar's head, he'd been hard to kill. Floor 8 had so far been her favorite setting, an autumn forest the monsters had been Dire Wolves. Brownies; which were freaking pains, always attacking in groups and with the minuses to armor class it was easy to get seriously hurt fighting them. But Kayaba had liked them so much they had appeared on every floor above since. Then the Brown Bears, the real problem with them was they were tough, they could take a lot damage but they were slow. The final hurrah had been Cerberus. Three fast bitting heads, a whip like tail and four paws perfect for crushing damage. He'd been scary. Kagome figured if he'd been white she might have turned tail and run, she remembered Sesshomaru's dog form. He'd been terrifying.

Kagome shuddered and took another sip of her cider. The boys were off hanging out with the other guys, she was saving the table for when dinner came. Floor 9 had been interesting, mostly water, ponds, creeks, and even a river or two. The solid land had almost been a maze there was so much water. She hadn't been surprised when the first monster they found had been called a Little Kappa, but she had almost died laughing. It looked nothing like the Kappa's she had seen in the Feudal Era. Then the Large Kappas were even funnier they had a face much like Jaken's but then the body of a salamander with a turtle shell. It cracked her up to see such a mismatched animal, the group save her brother thought she was crazy snickering through out the fights with the creatures. Then a Sea Snakes had been easy enough to look at they at least looked like a normal animal.

The boss had been scary enough Lord Sanshouu; his cave had been mostly filled with a large lake and she had to give Kayaba points for the awesome dramatics of having him emerge from the water with the Demonic Kappas. Those had cracked her up, more then half of the party had stared at her. She didn't blame them, what kind of idiot in the start of a battle laughed till she was almost crying? But she couldn't help it, seeing red colored Jakens with swords and red eyes she had pictured his face or better yet Sesshomaru's face and just like that she couldn't stop laughing.

Souta had almost cracked and laughed at her. She knew he knew she was thinking about the real Kappas she had seen and finding this hysterical. And it was. Totally laughable.

She shifted in her chair, abruptly thinking about the kid in black. Kirito was his name. He'd admitted to her he was the one who coined the term 'Beater' but he was a good kid. He was a little too serious but when she watched him fight she knew the truth of it. He liked it here. He liked fighting. He liked the challenge. That was something he didn't want to admit to, something he knew most wouldn't accept so he stayed on his own. She had asked him to join them, and he'd passed on it. She knew some of it was he was afraid they'd slow him down or resent him for being farther ahead then them. But there was something else holding him back.

She sighed, he was a lot like Inuyasha in some ways. But he still reminded her of Souta. At least he was willing to friend her so they could keep track of each other.

His friend Klein was annoying in the extreme she had almost had a flash back to Miroku when he had flushed and tried to introduce himself as single and looking for a girlfriend. Having learned her lesson with Hojo she didn't even let him finish before telling him she wasn't interested in having a boyfriend.

The chair across from her scraped on the floor as Captain flung himself into it, the other chairs at the table soon made their own noises as the rest of group sat down in time for dinner to arrive. Grinning as Souta was still being teased by Naruto Kagome focused on the here and now. What ever was in the future would happen.

**February 5th Floor 12 **

Ichigo could have kicked himself, some how he and Chad had gotten themselves cornered by a bunch of Darags; Greaters and Lessers and then while trying to get away found a bunch of minor Satyrs and a couple of Dark Nymphs. The only floor monster missing from the little party was the Wendigos. But since it was just him and Chad against at least a dozen monsters and it seemed some of the Darags were slow and filled in the gaps made by the things they had killed. Neither he nor Chad had a teleport crystal in hand and didn't have time to grab them because they were surrounded. Chad was pounding the crap out of anything in hammer reach and he was slashing furiously but he didn't see how they were going to get out of this. They were cornered.

**Kagome's Party**

Kagome looked around the woods curiously, this was their first day out on 12, they had spent the day before recovering from the Eleventh floor fight. Mapped in two days they had cleared it incredibly fast. Kagome figured it was because different guilds and parties were figuring out how to work together and how best to share information. They hadn't lost a man in the boss fight for the first time.

Of course not everyone had spent the day before resting, so they had been briefed on the monsters: Darags, moving evil trees that tried to confuse you and then kill you with their roots and eat you. They came in Greater and Lesser verities. The only real difference was the lesser moved fast but was easier to kill and the greater were slower but took a lot more to kill. There were Wendigos nasty evil things that had a hiding skill and would get close in the trees and come screaming out at you. Covered in bloody skins and then wearing a deer skull they were pretty scary. Their stats were too but they pretty much worked alone. But their screams could draw other things to you like Evil Nymphs; moss and bark covered humanoids with horribly sharp teeth and claws. Or Minor Satyrs. They liked to play music meant to lure you in and then they came out with nasty curved daggers. Oh and they often were in large groups with several Nymphs.

They had killed a few things, a couple of Wendigos, a nymph, and three or four Greater Darags. But it wasn't quite the numbers they had been told to expect. So obviously someone had come this way before them. Not too long before, but forty-five minutes or so. Kagome jerked to a stop surprising everyone. She thought for a moment she had someone shout a name...

She closed her eyes ignoring Captain asking what was wrong. She had leveled up killing her first monster today pushing her up to level 24. She had taken a moment to assign her skill points to her Two-Handed Blade skill and her Listening skill saving a couple points for her Cooking skill. But she thought she heard fighting...

"Zangetsu!"

Her eyes snapped open and she took off running, there was no doubt about it someone was in trouble. "Come on! Someone's in trouble up ahead!"

Hearing the others pick up their pace Kagome focused on activating her Sprint skill. They didn't sound like they were doing well at all. Hearing one last grunt of frustration she came out behind a Nymph and a Greater Darag. Going straight on into attack mood she didn't even look to see if she knew who the two people she was fighting to save were. Still in sprint she dealt a quick set of slices killing the Nymph. Then with a graceful twirl she attacked the Greater Darag in time for the others to start catching up. They knew her well enough not to stop to help but charge right on in to attack the other monsters. Finishing the Darag she felt the non-pain of a small dagger sinking into her leg. Kicking out she sent the Brownie flying. She hated the little buggers and they always seem to pick on her.

She took a moment to look over the fight. Captain had taken a hit and was down fifty or so points she'd guess but he was protecting a big guy who was deeply down in the red and taking the time to use a healing crystal, wise choice. His tag read Chad, a normal kinda of name for someone who stood out so much. He'd been a head and couple of inches taller than anyone in her group and that probably was normal enough for him. Not to mention he was built like a power house. Shaking that thought from her mind she checked the rest of group.

Naruto just killed a Satyr and was down a couple of points, probably from a Brownie. Daono kicking Darag butt, Suke-Oniki protecting his back. Souta was standing in front of the last guy fighting off another Nymph, while he used a healing crystal. He must have been really close to death to still be healing up. Then her next thought was about how she liked the set of his face and his well muscled shoulders. His hair was bright but some how suiting. Shocked by that thought she shoved it away. She hadn't liked a guy since Inuyasha. Besides this Zangetsu was the idiot who almost got himself and his friend killed.

Hearing the stomping of a Darag behind her she snapped back into action dismissing any thought about she hoped that orange color was natural. Spinning quickly she slashed at the Greater Darag until it vanished into little colored shards that faded from view.

With that there were no more monsters.

"Everyone okay?"

Her group sounded off and then Zangetsu reflexively spoke up. "Yeah thanks to you and your party you really saved our as..." His mouth snapped close at the last second to stop his sentence, pink rose in his cheeks.

The guy named Chad gave a quick thumbs up while his friend seemed to feel a little awkward having almost been rude. Shaking his head, his orange hair eye catching in the gloom Zangetsu spoke up. "Sorry that was a bit rude. I'm Zangetsu, this is my buddy Chad, you are?"

"Archer, My brother Inuyasha, his friends Daono, Suke-Oniki and our party companions Naruto and Captain." Kagome pointed at the listed party members in turn.

There was a moment of awkward silence, no one seemed to know what to say. Kagome had saved their lives and they had said thank you, what now?

"Well since you saved our lives how about we buy you lunch? It's a bit early but..."

Kagome looked at Souta and then Captain both guys shrugged at her. "Sounds good, you want to lead the way Zangetsu?"

He shrugged and lead the way back to the main trail. After a minute of walking Naruto asked quietly, "Is it just you two or did you loose somebody back there?"

Zangetsu answered. "It's just us, we don't seem to fit in well anywhere else and working with others is hard."

Kagome figured that answered the question of why she hadn't seen them before. "So thats why you two haven't been part of the boss clearing parties but are here on the front lines?"

**Ichigo**

He glanced over at the woman walking next to him... on second thought she could still be a girl. He couldn't figure out her age. She had to be at least seventeen looking at her brother, but between the way she lead the group and had jumped into battle cutting through the Darag in that first second not even looking at the people she was rescuing he was guessing she was older. And maybe, just maybe, had fought before SAO.

He'd been taken off guard to see her, he hadn't seen her since that first day in the courtyard. She had caught his eye then and watching her fight had been a beautiful thing. He'd give Kayaba that, the glowing swords or other weapons to show the active skills was amazing. But that moment she had come into the clearing she had started attacking before the sword lit. It made him believe she knew about fighting outside of the game. It made him curious. She was beautiful, she could fight and she kept five men in line, not just ones who knew her in real life but others as well.

"Yeah, thats why we're not part of the Boss-Parties. We were there for the forth floor, things were pretty bad and after so many players died needlessly we decided to stop agreeing to listen to idiots. We weren't giving up on the front lines but we couldn't take orders that would get us killed for no good reason."

She, he refused to think of her by a title as sexless as Archer, tilted her head sideways. "I understand the frustration you must have felt, there are a number of idiots in the group. But things have gotten better, we didn't loose a single person this last time."

Ichigo hated to be negative but there was no way considering the numbers of the imbeciles there that was anything but luck. "Well until the plans have improved to the point where they can do that consistently, count me and Chad out."

The cocked eyebrow gave him the idea he had just set himself up and the next words out of her mouth confirmed it.

"So if you believe in good planning why didn't you and your friend teleport out?"

**Kagome**

Kagome watched him flush in way that suggested to her his hair was natural. She needed to stop thinking about his hair. It was just hair. Spiky and dark orange and completely bizarre. And she liked it. Get over the damn hair! She mentally shouted to herself, he's a complete idiot!

"uh... okay that's fair. Thinking about it, that was pretty stupid. The real thing of it was by the time we realized we were in a enough trouble to think to use them we were cornered and couldn't stop to get them out."

Kagome shrugged. "And how did it get that bad? Monsters don't clump in numbers that large."

Zangetsu started playing with that distracting hair of his in an embarrassed sort of way. "Well we had gotten confused by Darags. You know how they move and send you the wrong direction if you don't have a high enough Detection skill? Well Search or even Tracking could work. Yeah my next level up I'm going to improve my Detection skill. Anyway we realized it was too many to fight so we were trying to get some place far enough away or a bottle neck. Anyway we ran into a group of Nymphs and Satyrs. So trapped between the two groups we had to fight and... well you showed up."

"That was really stupid." Kagome didn't try to soften the edge in her tone. She liked him. Way too much, she didn't need a boyfriend. She didn't want one. Besides people here weren't the same outside, and despite the fact she knew you could get married here in the game and even have sex she had no interest in finding out if a relationship started here could survive the real world. "You should always have a plan B and C as well as doing the normal thing."

Souta coughed behind her and she turned on him, counting their standardized plans off on one hand. "Stop snickering Yasha, we go hunting as plan A staying in pairs mostly. Plan B we run for it. Plan C we use crystals. Everyone has one."

She glared at him, he was probably amused by her insisting on sticking to the plans considering the number of time she had complained about Inuyasha being head strong. Or he could even be laughing about the way she had ignored the 'stick together' part and charged off to save them. Or he could be laughing because at home in her normal life she wasn't much of a planner. Making lists for her trips to the feudal era of what she'd need and when to come back had been about it.

Kagome turned back to Zangetsu. "If you need to run pulling crystals out then is not that hard."

He shrugged at her. "Next time I'll take your advice. But since I'm alive, Chad's alive, and none of you were seriously endangered because of our actions I'm not going to worry about it. I owe you, a lot. My life to be exact but that's not something you can weight and decide payment on. I'll offer to friend you so if you ever get in over your heads..."

He looked over her whole group before focusing back on her, a curious intensity there for her to see. "Me and Chad will be there as fast as we can to help."

Kagome knew having back up would be very helpful at some point even if she wanted to avoid the attractive Zangetsu. It could be the difference between life and death if not for herself for her brother and friends. "We'll accept that and lunch, I just don't want you two to make the same mistakes again."

**February 5th 9:04 p.m.**

Kagome reclined on her bed, thinking. Zangetsu and Chad had pretty much ended up partying with them for the day since after lunch they were all going back to the dungeon. The two were on her friends list now, as well as everyone else's.

But she hoped she'd never call on them again.

Ichigo scared her. She had been heart broken when after finishing high school the well still stayed closed. She had always thought it would let her back through. Even after three years of no contact with Inuyasha she had still loved him deeply. She wanted to go back to him; it had taken realizing school was out, she didn't have a job and hadn't sent in applications to colleges and that she was going to waste her life staring at a well hoping for a second chance. She had made her choice that last second in the well after wishing the jewel away, she had chosen to go home. Finish school. She knew it was because she hadn't want to regret going with him without a good bye to her family or friends. Or the chance to resent him later for stopping her from finishing school.

And even if she knew what she did now she wasn't sure she would change her choice.

Inuyasha loved her, she didn't doubt that but she doubted that at sixteen she had been ready to be married. Eighteen, yeah she'd believe it. But at almost sixteen? That still seemed so young.

She had cried a lot that first year realizing she wasn't going to get to go back. But she had settled into college and normal life like it was an ill fitting skin. This wasn't something she was doing to feel good about herself it had been something she had done to stop wasting her life. Inuyasha had let her go, he wanted her happy. So she hated that she was living without real joy. Taking walks in city parks, trying to enjoy her family, all of it came at a price.

It had been a year ago she tried to find someone she would be able to date. But every single guy she'd met, even ones her friends said were interesting, were really unbearable dull. When she wanted to let them down easy, she found she had to picture how they would react to find themselves in the feudal era to smile brightly. But more often then not she found she had to be a bit hard or they didn't listen like her admirers from her teenage years never had. So after six months, more than twenty meeting/blind dates later she gave up.

But this Zangetsu shows up and she's drooling like she had over Inuyasha while he was still pinned to the tree. But this Zangetsu had made some pretty good first impressions: Self censoring. He said thank you right away. Not embarrassed at all to be saved by a girl. He seemed to admire her but wasn't rude or forward about it. It was a relaxed admiration. It was totally outside of her experience.

Miroku would grope you. Inuyasha was pretty much shy beyond belief. Koga ran her over never once listening to what she really wanted. Hojo was both shy but forward, he tried to take care of her but didn't listen any better then Koga. Her brother was shy when he liked girls. There were a number of others, arrogance could be added to the list of things she'd seen, guys who couldn't believe you didn't want them. Oddly enough she had met most of them in college. But the rest tended to fall some where in among her other beaus.

She liked his quiet admiration, but didn't think she should. There was a certain level of almost arrogance in it... arrogance wasn't the word. Confidence was. He was confident she was pretty and could fight but almost seemed to expect he was her equal. That wasn't something she had ever found. Sango was a fellow girl, but also was a kick butt demon slayer. Inuyasha was a half demon, tough, demanding, her protecter. Miroku was a monk, and a very good one. Koga was a demon. Shippo her son. Sesshomaru a demon lord. Ayumi was a romantic genius. Yuka was louder then her about most things. Eri was a busy butterfly, always doing something, making a list, moving around. Kikyo, her own soul was a better miko and found Inuyasha first.

She was very afraid Zangetsu was just her kind of guy, he could fight, wasn't afraid of death. Or at least that was what she thought since he was on the front lines with one other guy. And he didn't fit the mold. Orange hair was pretty far from normal. His friend was loyal enough, or brave enough to be willing to go it alone with him on the front line so he was probably a good friend. But that didn't mean he'd make a good boyfriend.

She shook her head wildly, and then with a loud groan rolled over to hide her face in her pillow. She hated having a crush.

**February 18th Ichigo and Chad Floor 15**

Chad watched Ichigo cut through the on coming hoards of spiders. Normally they took turns leading but in the last two weeks Ichigo had been acting strangely. First it started when that girl Archer pulled them out of a bad spot, then for the rest of the day they had spent with the girl and her small raiding party Ichigo had been acting weird. He'd never seen his friend watch a girl the way he'd watched Archer, and she didn't seem Ichigo's type. Normally he ended up being pursued by the girl interested, like with Orihime. Well on second thought Ichigo did like girls with striking looks, and those blue eyes were deep and mysterious. Orihime's hair and eyes made her interesting to look at, Rukia had such dark purple eyes... Chad had to admit the more he thought about it Archer sorta made sense.

Rukia and Orihime were extremes, busty verses almost boyish, tall and short, quiet and loud, dreamy and down to earth. Archer seemed to have a balance about her that was very different from any other girl his friend had ever paid attention to. In a romantic sense or a friend sense.

But it didn't explain why his friend had been pushing himself to exhaustion and beyond since then. Ichigo finished the last Black Widow and turned to him wiping at his brow in manner that told him Ichigo was pretty worn out. Not surprising since he'd been fighting almost by himself since after lunch. "Zangetsu what's bothering you?"

Ichigo made a surprised face that Chad knew was his friend thinking he'd hid his problems. He always forgot that the two of them had known the other far too long for such things to work. After Chad stared him down. Ichigo gave and went to against the cave wall. Joining his friend he let Ichigo speak his mind.

"I suppose what's really bothering me is when this first started it didn't trouble me to know we were trapped. We'd get out. We'd fight our way out."

Chad once against was troubled by the twinge of guilt that reminded him Ichigo was only here because he'd asked him here spur of the moment. That moment before Archer had shown up to save them Ichigo had shoved him out of the way of a Greater Darag's attack; Ichigo had done it because he knew Chad couldn't take another full on hit like that but watching his friends life points fall down to a slim red line had been horrifying. He had thought finally he'd gotten Ichigo in over his head.

"But I'm starting to realized this isn't going to be me missing real life for a month, or two, or even a couple of months. Chad this is going to take years to get out of."

Chad sighed, that moment standing and listening to Kayaba he had known it was going to be hard. Kayaba was a genius. A living, breathing genius that had created a world full of monsters and he didn't care if you lived or died. He had felt then it was going to take years to get out. Chad knew Ichigo was just starting to think about everything he was missing in his sisters' lives; This year they'd be turning eighteen. He knew Ichigo worried about Yuzu dating, Karin had told his friend years ago to butt out but it didn't stop Ichigo's concern. They'd be going to college too, Karin had a chance at a soccer scholarship and Yuzu wanted to be a nurse probably in pediatrics. His friend was working on a law degree, Chad had to admit he was pretty worried too. What was going to happen to the band? His skills would suffer the longer he was in here but on the other hand he had already written two new songs about living and fighting here. So he probably had a chance to corner the market on the outside when they got out. "I know."

Ichigo snorted. "Of course you do. I think I knew that starting day two. It's just sinking in now."

Chad didn't have anything helpful to say but knew what his friend need to hear, he'd seen Ishida do it, Rukia do it and Renji and before all of them he'd done it. "You are a bit slow some times."

That got a laugh. "Chad if I wanted to hear nasty sarcastic comments I wouldn't have ended up in here with you, I would have gone and pestered Ishida."

He had to snort this time, Ichigo had a point. "Then stop moping and taking pointless risks, Ichigo."

Ichigo sighed at him. "Fine. Starting tomorrow I'll let you take lead and show me how it's done. Happy?"

Chad gave him a thumbs up. Ichigo rolled his eyes before getting to his feet. "Chad let's go back to the inn before it gets dark, I'm tired."

Hopping to his feet he followed his friend only to be surprised when Ichigo said: "I think in a floor or two we should rejoin the boss-raiders."

Chad quickly could guess why his friend wanted to though, he wanted to get closer to Archer. "Sure."

**February 29th 8:47 a.m. Floor 17 Kagome**

Kagome surveyed the gathering group, Souta was talking to Kirito and Daono, Suke-Oniki was with them but seemed to be watching the crowd. Captain and Naruto were talking to Klein and his guild. Guilds were becoming more and more common. It wasn't causal raiding parties any more.

Kibaou was third in command of Aincrad Liberation Force or he at least was very listened to among the thirty or so players alined with the group that were here. But at the moment all he seemed to be good for was causing trouble. The leader Thinker and his second Yulier, who likely was half in love with Thinker if Kagome wasn't mistaken, were ignoring him. Kagome had a feeling that was a mistake. Kibaou wasn't an orange player by any length of thought but he was the voice in her opinion of dark element of the normal players. Angry with beaters, very little tolerance for other players with minds of their own, he still was charismatic enough to draw a following of weak willed sops.

"He awfully annoying."

Kagome jumped and discovered Zangetsu and Chad standing behind her. Ignoring the flutter coming from some where inside her stomach she focused on the upcoming battle. "Yeah, you know my first battle with him, he had the nerve to call me a Beater just because I got the last hit bonus."

Zangetsu raised an eyebrow, "That's pretty stupid of him, I only met him for the fourth floor battle and he told me punk assholes had no business in a real fight. I think I scared the crap out of him by laughing at him, if either of us had no place there it was him."

Kagome nodded, Zangetsu had the measure of him. He was weak where it mattered. "So do you know who found the boss room?"

"We did."

Kagome stared, but she had to admit it explained why he was here. "So are you just telling us what you know and leaving or are you coming with us?"

"We decided it was probably time to start helping with the boss fights."

Zangetsu seemed very casual about his statement but looking at his friend from out of the corner of her eye she got the feeling it was less of a we and more of a me. "That's good to hear we can always use more fighters."

Zangetsu nodded and looked around the gathering, at the moment it was eighty strong, Kagome figured it would stretch up to a hundred.

"It's gotten a lot bigger..."

Kagome started talking before she thought it through, talking to him was not part of the 'get over your crush plan'. "Yeah with so many guilds working together plus small raiding parties like you two and us it's become a regular mob. But it helps that you can pull back when you get super hurt and let someone else take your place."

Zangetsu glanced over the crowd for a second time before turning back to her. "You know I'm surprised I would have thought you'd have turned your party into a guild by now."

"Why?"

"You know the bonuses you'd get for fighting together... you already are pretty much an agreed, solid party. Turning guild just makes it official."

Kagome shrugged, they hadn't talked about it really but from what she had learned about guilds she was uncomfortable starting one, the money part would mean dealing with math more and splitting stuff more finely. She supposed some of it was nostalgia, when she'd traveled in the past the only set in stone agreement was Naraku was going down, everything else was working together towards that goal. "Then why haven't you and Chad turned guild?"

Zangetsu raised an eyebrow, "You need four or more players."

Kagome felt her cheeks heat. "Oh. As you can tell there hasn't been much thought about this."

He shrugged. "Don't blame you, most guilds seem confining. Demanding so much money, or like the Liberation Force demand you take care of every player. Or demanding uniforms like D.D.A."

"D.D.A.?"

"Divine Dragon Alliance."

She giggled. That made sense. "If I start a guild it's gonna be for the guild-less, for those willing to team up for the big fights but that want to do their own thing the rest of the time."

Zangetsu's face split into a smirk. "That's a pretty awesome name."

"What?"

"Guildless, name your guild Guildless. It's awesome."

Kagome didn't have a chance to answer because Thinker was calling the meeting to order.

**Boss Monster Room 10:58 a.m.**

Kagome once again had to give Kayaba props, the dark woods had a distinct feel compared to the other forests. The steam they had crossed had such a deep blue-purple tone to it Kagome had to wonder if something was going to leap out at her. Never mind she had seen others cross it safely. But having the boss monster's room be a rocky clearing at the base of mountain was cool.

The boss; Hiisi the Mountain Master was standing up from his boulder like throne using his spear like a staff. His little Menninkins and their Dips were straining to attack the raiding party. Kagome couldn't help but stare at the Menninkins, the Dips were just smallish demonic looking dogs with huge canines, but the Menninkins were short humanoids. The deep green of their hair and the gray of the skin made you realize they were anything but human and the longer you looked the stranger the proportions got.

Their small size made the eight foot Mountain Master look close to ten or twelve feet tall. He was scary enough on his own. Hair so dark on first glance you thought it was black, really it was blue, eyes dark but with a glimpse of silver, the gray tone of his skin made you wonder if he wasn't made of the mountain he was master of.

The signal was given and the first wave charged. They were to engage to small monsters and the second were to run past and get the Boss, the third. Her group were to jump in and help who ever needed it.

Kagome watched the second wave charge, Chad and Zangetsu were in it. Kagome didn't want to bash Thinker but the way he laid out the groups was flawed. Letting his guild take the lead was both a kindness and a selfish choice. She was pretty sure his group was burning out, after having realized this was going to take years to escape from Kagome had decided to take a day a week off, some times it didn't work out. But most the time they manage to go find small quest to have fun doing, or to have a nice picnic or some days they just spent time hanging out in town, shopping, sleeping, talking. Captain had a younger sister on the outside, Naruto missed his grandparents.

Seeing a man go down under a Dip she didn't hesitate. Charging, she found herself embroiled in the battle, no pulling back to the edges now. Both hands on her sword Kagome found the movements calming. The mix of programed skill and the knowledge she had floating around in her head creating a style unlike most. To be honest the only others she had seen fight without skill was Zangetsu and Kirito.

Twirling she cut the head off a Menninkin, of course that failed to finish it. So with a follow up slice she cut deep into the torso and it shattered. Her eyes caught on Zangetsu and she once again noticed that his style was both alike and very different from Inuyasha's.

He like her had clearly specialized in Two Handed Blade skill but at odd moments he took a hand off and would use the blade one handed. He also had special blade, it was huge the tip was wider then the rest of the blade and it clearly was a one sided blade it had very little in the way of guard just a crest of metal rising from the non-cutting side. The deep black red of blade made it's name obvious, the Blood Blade.

It was strictly listed as a monster blade but Zangetsu had told her he'd bought it from a guy on the front lines who couldn't use it.

She had gotten her Kogarasumaru as a rare drop back on eleven, she knew in a couple more floors she should look for an upgrade. She'd miss Kagorasumaru, it served her well. Side stepping the thrust of a spear she realized she had fought her way into the Boss fight. Opps.

The boss had been giving them a pounding, more then half of the planned boss fighters had pulled back, heath deep in yellow and the red, good news was people had almost finished with the minions and were joining her and the others in fighting the boss. She frowned when she realized once again the boss was now focusing on her. It had become something of a pattern, she'd get into a boss-fight, land a hit and the boss would target her.

Leaping back she realized she was too slow, the large spear was plunging towards her middle. Part of her mind dismissed it, her heath was good enough she take the hit, but another part was afraid the damage would push her heath lower then it had ever been. She'd seen what it could do to others, with her luck she would be as dazed as Naruto talked about, and she wouldn't be able to dodge a second strike.

Then a hard body hit her from the side, the world spun wildly and then a heavy weight pinned her awkwardly to the ground. Confused she blinked her eyes open and found herself looking up into Zangetsu's face, he groaned and pushed himself up his left hand unwittingly pressing into her breast.

Torn between being grateful and angry she only growled, "Get off."

His eyes flew open and went straight to where his hand was, red crept across his face and he threw himself backwards. "Sorry!"

Then he refocused on her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." she sat up and checked her heath and his, neither of them had been hit. "Thanks to you. But I could have taken the hit."

He looked at the ground his blush still visible. "I know, but it's better if you don't have to, right?"

"Yeah. So thanks." She pushed herself to her feet in time to see that her little brother had struck the finishing hit. "GOOD JOB YASHA!

The crowd started to cheer and slap each other's backs, no one had died for the third floor in a row. Chad came through the crowd to join Zangetsu, Kagome wanted to run away. Owing Zangetsu was not a good plan, unfortunate hand placement aside she knew it hadn't been on purpose. Mentally sighing she said; "How does dinner sound?"

Zangetsu looked a touch relieved she wasn't angry with him. "Good. Really good."

Kagome checked the time. "Oh. How about lunch instead?"

His normal half frown turned quizzical and his eyes moved in a way she knew was him checking the time. He snorted because he could see like she had that it was only eleven thirty-eight. "That sounds good."

it was at that time the rest of her group began to join her with Zangetsu and Chad, Naruto and Captain was grinning about something someone had said but nodded in greeting to Zangetsu and Chad, then they turned on her. "So people are really starting to notice the way you get targeted and there are some pretty ridiculous ideas out there."

Kagome ignored the odd looks on Chad and Zangetsu's faces and spoke directly to the two boys smirking at her. "I know, it's weird. But I don't want to know what they're saying it's bound to be completely wrong."

Captain smirked wider. "You say that like you know why Boss' target you."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "I do, computer games have never liked me. Why would this be any different?"

The two of them cracked up, they'd heard her say something like that every time someone asked, or commented on the oddity. The fact was Souta and her thought it might be because she was Miko or the compute program sensed something wrong with her. Or even as simple as her habit of some times attacking things without an active skill had caught the boss-man's eyes and he tested her.

Speaking of which Souta had pushed through the crowd to rejoin her, he had a grin on his face but his eyes were serious. "You good Archer?"

"Yep, Zangetsu here saved me so he and Chad will be joining us for lunch."

Souta nodded but she could see he was still upset, she'd need to explain a few things to him later. She'd told him she was glad to be here and even told him if she died here she was glad she could with him. But clearly he needed a refresher.

Daono, Suke-Oniki joined them, "So we going on to get some grub?"

Kagome nodded to Suke-Oniki, "Yep Zangetsu and Chad will be joining us."

"Cool, I saw him tackle you."

Daono chipped in. "Yeah you always are telling us to watch it but you cut it closer there."

She rolled her eyes and pointed to the way to the next floor "I could have taken the hit, a second one is another story."

Her group laughed as they started moving and she couldn't help but note the frown on Zangetsu's face, she wondered if it was because he felt she was brushing it off or because he didn't want her to risk herself like that. Oh well, she'd never been able to read minds before this anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

**In SAO**

**Disclaimer: what can I say? After watching SAO I fell in love with it. Amazing! I would sign up even if I only had one life. Actually I'd probably sign up because of that. But I thought what if Kagome and Ichigo met in there? And so, this was born.**

**Chapter Two March 21th Floor 23 2:37 p.m.**

Kagome twirled dodging the thrown bolder, she hated Rock Golems. Somehow she and the others had gotten themselves cornered down a box canyon with three Rock Golems. A grunt of pain caught her attention and she noticed Daono had fallen and his health was into the yellow. Frustrated she had to admit Rock Golems were hard to fight, they could throw a short but ranged attack. A mere twenty five feet, and they couldn't throw rock after rock, they had a thirty seconds to a full minute before they could throw another rock.

But between the fondness for heights and blending in you had to find them first. Oh and yeah, that thirty seconds gave them time to move before attacking making it even harder to pin-point them. Looking over her group she knew everyone had been hit at least once, Daono and Naruto more then once. They were cornered and getting pounded, someone needed to do something. "That means me." she muttered.

"Hun?"

Souta heard her and was looking at her questioningly.

She grinned at him. "This." Then using her sprint skill she flung herself up the wall where she thought that last shot aimed at her had come from. It was close but she managed to land on a shelf in the wall, Souta's shout of 'ARE YOU CRAZY?!' was answered. Yes. Yes she was. And damn was it fun.

Looking she used her search skill and it highlighted the Rock Golem for her. Zooming toward it she found she was getting angry when she had to break off to dodge the rock. It still did a bit of damage grazing her arm. Knowing this was her chance she ran in close and began to beat on it, dodging the punches, those didn't do as much damage as taking a full hit from a thrown rock but it still did a lot.

She killed it but in the end she still ended up taking another couple hundred points of damage. Then she looked for the others, Captain had used her tactic and found a second one he was killing it with Daono joining him.

Souta was looking for thrown rocks trying to pin-point the third and having no such luck, using her skill she soon saw why, it wasn't three it was four Rock Golems. "There was four of them!"

Souta's head jerked to look at her and then he saw a rock heading for him and Naruto, The two of them ran towards it clearly planning on killing it. Suke-Oniki was looking for the forth. She ran her way across the wall to the fourth on a ledge just a bit higher then the one she'd been on. She saw Suke-Oniki heading her way while she attacked the last one.

When he joined her she was very happy to switch out with him and she couldn't help but notice how much the guild damage bonus helped. It was a good thing they had officially become the Guildless. The last Boss fight had even let her recruit two others into joining the Guildless, they joined for the bonus in the boss fights and because she only required that fighters pay a monthly fee of a sixth of what that person earned that month. The money went toward Healing crystals and a club house. She didn't know when or where they would buy a house but she was thinking in the next ten floors or so it would nice to have a place all their own. Inns cost money.

Agil was a guy who went out two full days a week, and half days the rest to fight and get items to sell and then use a bit of the profits to help the mid-liners. People who aspired to joining the front line but were behind the curve. It was good work and he was pretty good in a fight, he'd agreed to join their guild because the fee was what the person could pay and she didn't order her guild around unless it was in a fight.

Callie was blacksmith, a craftsmen but one who didn't want to give up front-lining completely, much like Agil. She had joined them because she wanted a strong guild with a woman for a leader, something about expectations being more reasonable.

Kagome hadn't seen Zangetsu and Chad in the last fight so Zangetsu still didn't know she'd become the guild leader of the Guildless. She wanted to ask him and Chad to join, they fit the criteria... of course that was her only reason. Not. Last time she'd talked to Zangetsu she had blurted out the question that had been nagging at her since they met. Was that his natural hair color? His answer had surprised her it was no. Normally, in the real world it was brighter.

Sadly she had found the more time she spent with him the more she liked him.

Panting she took a moment get her wind back, she was deeply in the yellow, hard to do at level 32, at least anywhere other than on the front lines. But this was the frontline. Hopping down she watched the others join her, Souta still looked a bit annoyed.

He proved it by growling out his question: "What were you thinking?"

She shrugged. "We needed to change tactics, that was all I could think of."

Scowling he spat: "That was stupid and it cost you!"

She rolled her eyes. "Look, We're all alive. We now know not to run this way again. I think you need to chill."

He waved his hands making inarticulate noises before finding the words to properly express himself. "You!" he huffed. "I don't want to go home without you!"

She sighed, and found herself pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look Sou... Yasha you need to let it go. I take risks, but it's because I look at what not risking it will cost me. If you end up going home without me I wouldn't regret it. You got home!"

He stomped, and looked near angry tears.

The rest of the guild shifted around, seeming uncomfortable with the two of them arguing. Kagome decided it was probably time to call it quits for the day. "Lets head for an inn guys."

Everyone nodded and they started walking back. Kagome dropped back to walk with Souta, the silence hung between the two of them. Souta really was mad at her. She supposed this was why she'd never been fully honest about her travels in the past. Her mother would have made her stop, and Souta; if this was any clue, would have had nightmares and been frightened.

"Why are you mad at me Souta?"

"You!" he huffed, and waved his hands in mute frustration.

She waited for him to say something more but he just glared at her. Torn between laughing and growling at him Kagome knew this was probably one of those moments where she needed to come clean. "Souta if you think this risk of me not making it home is new I lie entirely too well."

That stopped him, stomping he huffed and she could see tears forming in his eyes. But the denial and anger died away and he hung his head. She couldn't see if he really was crying, or if he was just getting a grip on his emotions.

Standing and watching him she noticed the group had stopped far enough away that if they didn't use the listen skill none of them would hear this. She was betting they were listening, none of them would mention it though. She was surprised when he looked up at her tears running down his face, and he was snickering.

"What?"

Closing his eyes he just tilted his head back and laughed. His face was still wet but he was laughing. Seeing him calming she waited for him to start making sense because if he didn't she was going to slap him.

Heaving a few last breaths he explained. "I always knew you didn't talk about all of it, but coming here and fighting with you; I think I'm starting to understand why. I never want to tell mom about most of this."

She smiled but still felt like she should tell him a few more things. "You know how the well disappeared for three days after the final battle?"

He nodded and looked a bit confused about where she was going with it. "You remember the scars I had coming out of the well and how my shirt was bloody?"

Souta nodded again looking really lost.

"In the start of the fight we were fighting in poison. Air toxic enough to kill plants and every living thing without some sort of power. Humans, animals, minor demons. Inuyasha was over whelmed and turned wild. He was the one to hurt me. That wasn't the first time either. I know you saw how many bandages Mom bought for me but I didn't think you realized some times I used them on myself."

His face was slightly sad but not surprised. "You know Kagome Grandpa knew, he always said to me you were a brave girl. I knew you were brave especially as a girl, but you're right things like you dropping used bandaids in the trash while at home was beyond me."

Kagome stared at him, then asked. "You good now?"

He snickered. "No. My sister is nuts. I'm trapped in Virtual Reality and we have seventy-seven floors to go."

"Besides that brat?"

"No. I want you to promise to tell more of the unedited travels you had."

"Fine. You good now?"

"Yes."

"Then move it!"

Catching up with the rest of the group Kagome hoped Souta would let her take the big risks next time they got into a fight without flipping out.

**Ichigo April 1st Floor 25 3:01 p.m.**

They were cornered.

He'd managed to get a minute to himself while Chad covered him and Archer was coming, her and the Guildless but he feared it'd be too late. He'd ended up using his healing crystal because one of the Elephants caught him twice, first he'd been slowed by an Gold Ant attack and so it stabbed him with a tusk and then flung him around and then trampled him. Down in the red Chad had saved his ass, and used his crystal and had gotten back up in the green. But they were still fighting a horde and being driven into parts of the savannah they didn't know.

Ichigo hated to say it but today might be the day he and Chad found themselves in a corner they couldn't get out of alone. Switching out with Chad he growled seeing how hurt his friend was, Chad was going to need to heal himself, and between the two of them they only had one more crystal after that. Grunting he took the damage from getting caught in between two Elephants, he manage to kill one while Chad took the chance to heal up, but he was already back down in the yellow and Chad was back down a few hundred points.

Swearing Ichigo knew this was it, Archer and the others would be too late. Chad looked at him and Ichigo found it pissed him off to know his friend and him were going to die facing a few computer-generated monsters. They had faced soul eating creatures, a man aspiring to be god and many others some where in between but they were going to die in some lousy ass GAME!

All because the truth of the matter was they hadn't gone out and bought more teleportation crystals. Hacking the head off one of the golden ants he swore again, he didn't want to die this way. This was SO STUPID!

Back to back with Chad, Ichigo knew he could only take about one hit more from one of the Elephants and if the ants got ahold of him again he could take two or three bites before it was over. Chad would last a bit longer and if he managed to use that other crystal he might make it, but it was ify and knowing his friend there was a good chance Chad was going to try and use it on him.

Angrier than he'd been in a long time he decided to hell with it, he'd never let death stop him before. Lashing out at the nearest elephant he was stunned when rather than flashing with his normal blue-ish skill boost the sword lit up in black, pitch black. Stunned he watched in almost awe as the Elephant that would have needed another two or three hits shattered in just one.

What the hell had he just done?

Looking to Chad to see if he'd seen it, he saw his friend's face turn determined, raising his huge hammer Ichigo was surprised to see it turn red, normally it was green. Then it hit him, Chad could do it too! It must be Full Bring! Grinning with bloodthirsty glee he slashed into the monsters attacking them: First he noticed using Full Bring reduced any damage he took by more than half, and it more then doubled his attack damage. Second really third, he noticed his speed was boosted, allowing him to dodge the attacks. So at the end of the fight when he was just a sliver of red hit points, he sat down back to back with Chad unable to believe for whatever reason they could use Full Bring inside the game. Not to mention he was a bit surprised he could even do it, Ginjo had stolen it from him after all.

Ichigo had to admit that had been one twist he'd not seen coming. "That was a surprise."

Chad grunted back, "I'll say."

They were quiet for a minute and Ichigo had to say not feeling real pain was definitely one of his favorite parts of the game, other wise he'd be a bleeding groaning mess. "Can I have that healing crystal?"

Chad laughed a short laugh but pulled up his item list before passing it over.

Ichigo used it and felt much better about their chances getting off the plains now, "I vote we never leave home without teleporting crystals again."

Chad turned sideways and flopped over, Ichigo looked down at his tired and wounded friend, Chad was almost in the red after all, seeing the thumbs up he started snickering. Yeah, but it had taught them more then that, they could use Full Bring here.

That was when he saw Archer and her favorite five players following her at a high rate of speed. He'd almost forgotten calling her, now he was going to get it. But he had to say being alive and getting to look at her cute but angry face made it seem like a better day.

**Kagome April 17th Floor 27 1:09 p.m.**

They were starting back up after their rest for lunch, Captain and Naruto were talking about the time Naruto's sister had done something embarrassing, and how funny it had been, Souta was talking to Daono about what school would be like when they woke up, Suke-Oniki was playing guard and bringing up the rear-guard, she of course was playing leader.

Today it was just them, Callie was working her shop as was Agil, her other two players that were tempted to join hadn't yet, she really hoped Yumioni would, it would be nice to have another girl, especially since she would be more then a one dayer, she said she'd go three or four days a week to help frontline rather then completely retiring to her inn job. She was one of the few players with a high food skill, Kagome was another, and she'd met Asuna on the last boss hunt and she'd found out both of them liked cooking to relax. Not that there really was much cooking to be done, you just held your knife over things to prep it, then set it in the oven and whatever.

Lame but the designer was a guy, it was nice there was even a Cooking Skill, he could have ignored it all together. But since she was on the topic of food, the first thing she wanted to eat was ramen, stupid she knew but that was what she wanted because there was nothing like proper ramen here.

"Hey we have a secret room up ahead."

Naruto's statement had them all switching into professional mode, hands went to the special belts that allowed them three different items to be on hand, pricy but well worth it. They all had a healing crystal, and a teleport crystal, the third was left up to the individual, she had her new sword on it, she knew her current one was going to be broken in the next level or two. It couldn't take the damage levels they were facing but silly sentimental her, she didn't want to give it up until it had died.

Readying herself she looked over her troops, this level was weird, the monsters looked like they should be in a cave, rock type monsters: Boulder Golems, Stone Gnomes, and the rarer monsters were the Rock Lizards, and Crystal Wraiths; they looked like the Boulder Golems but clear, making them very hard to spot. But the tunnels looked like something from minecraft or that old anime Souta had liked Code Lyoko.

Refocusing on the secret room she nodded to Naruto to open it, he did so pressing the symbol. It flashed brighter blue and then turned into the outline of door before forming the door. They had seen two other secret rooms, both had minor quests inside them but Kagome knew Kayaba was the sort of evil genius to have added those to have some really kick ass trap room waiting for when some players had let their guard down.

Heaving a deep breath, she let her skill light her sword up in a soft pink then leading the way she entered the room. There was no monsters, just a treasure chest, like the other two. She let her skill fade, "Yasha open that chest, Naruto make sure to stay by the door, we don't want to get trapped in here."

Following the others over to the chest Kagome noticed that there was something different about this room, it seemed bigger than the other two. Turning in a slow circle she realized it wasn't just a little bigger it was a lot bigger.

Fear making her heart pound she shouted trying to stop it, "YASHA DON'T..."

It was too late, the chest was open.

The room's blue lighting turned red and and they all turned to look at the door Naruto was struggling to keep open. The door slammed shut knocking Naruto to the floor, Kagome was horrified to see Naruto was a quarter down in life points from his fruitless struggle with the door.

That was when Boulder Golems and Stone Gnomes started to pour into the room, Kagome hacked at the one nearest her but she knew the number was too much for six players, even if they were front-liners.

"Teleport crystals!"

At her shout, hands plunged towards belts. Kagome was pleased to see her orders being followed promptly and was reaching for her crystal when Daono the first to shout "Ralberg Teleport Gate!" stayed put.

Nothing happened, he didn't go any where.

Kagome realized what it meant same time as everyone else. "Shit!"

She hated being right, and more monsters were pouring into the room, no wonder it was so big there must be thirty or forty of them. "Back to back!"

Her, Souta, Captain, Daono, Suke-Oniki were fine having been close together but Naruto was off on his own and hurt. That realization bolted through her and whipping around she was terrified to realize already there were monsters between them and Naruto. Naruto's expression, from the glimpse she had, told her he knew it.

"Guys Protect Yasha! Yasha call for help! Zangetsu, Chad, anyone who might be on the frontlines today!"

With that she lunged forward trying to get to Naruto, she needed to buy him time to use that healing crystal. Souta yelled at her but she was pleased to see with a quick glance back the other boys were protecting her brother while he wrote up the message for help. Slashing she hated the fact she wasn't getting far, the room was so full of monsters she'd kill one take a step and then there would be another one.

The arm she had just cut off was falling in slow motion in front of her but she could see past the monster to Naruto trying to use the healing crystal but then a Boulder Golem caught him across the back. The crystal fell from his hand and the small thunk was lost in the sounds of the fight but the scared look in Naruto's eyes as he looked her way helplessly hit her somewhere deep. Even as he shattered Kagome kept fighting towards where he'd been, it was like her body was moving but her mind was stuck, she had taken damage she had no one to protect her back...

Turning back towards the rest of her boys she realized even if Naruto was gone the rest of them were still there. Everyone back there was hurt, even Souta. The hollow feeling of a hand punching through her upper shoulder broke her completely out of it, slashing upwards her skill guiding her blade she cut the Boulder Golem in half then and a mostly downward stroke she sliced and Stone Gnome in half. The damage didn't kill it so she cut across it again this time destroying it.

Twirling she let her skill fade and hit a new gnome while her other hand went searching for her healing crystal, she was about half way down, she got much lower and...

Damn it! She hissed lashing out with her sword only doing half the normal skill inflicted damage, that slash across the back had knocked her down further. Spinning in a circle she finally got the crystal out and used it, the time it took to start working seemed to be counted by heart beats. Stupid she knew, this was a game she couldn't really hear her heart but that was what it felt like. Then it faded and she felt the mental rush telling her it was working, hand now free she put it back on the hilt and activated her skill finishing off the monsters she'd been holding at bay.

Now she had to last for about a minute without taking damage.

Three more kills and she was back with the group. Her cover allowed Suke-Oniki to use his crystal for the ten seconds it took to absorb and the thirty seconds it took to get him back to full.

"AH HA!" Souta crowed, "SENT!"

Just like that they were no longer a square protecting the center but a circle united in the fight. Her normal high from fighting was chilled by Naruto's death. She didn't know if anyone else knew yet.

They were fighting and fighting and the numbness was starting to set in, Kagome remembered it well from fighting Naraku. Your body was fighting but your mind started to check out, it meant your ability to process the fight around you and strategize was starting to leave. Exhaustion did that every time.

It seemed like it had been hours but she doubted more then maybe - at longest, ten minutes had passed.

At least there didn't seem to be more monsters entering the room.

That was when, Daono the one at her left side made a mistake, she saw that hit take him through the side and she saw his face go blank, his hit points were in the red and worse he'd frozen. "DAONO!"

Her scream woke him up just in time for the arm to whack through his head. His eyes crossed and his hit points slid down to nothing; his knees trembled and strangely there was no fear on his face, if she had to name it, it would be acceptance. He knew he'd messed up and accepted the price.

The redline where the arm had cut into his digital figure appeared and then half way through slumping he shattered.

Souta's scream snapped her out of it, she woke up to the danger in time to catch a pick axe on her sword and save herself from further harm. But her brother's grieving sobs were distracting and when she looked around she found while everyone was fighting their edge was dull. All were hurt, Souta was getting dangerous low, his pain at his friends loss making him wild. Suke-Oniki was crying silently but he was doing better than Souta. Captain's face was set; not with pain or, anger but in determination. That was when she knew he knew Naruto was long gone.

There was only a dozen and half or so monsters left but a pick axe struck her sword and thing she had been thinking about just before entering the room happened. She was left without a sword.

"Shit." She reached for her belt only to be knocked down by a Boulder Golem.

Souta leapt in front her of her slashing wildly, he beat the Bolder Golem but left his back open to the nearest Stone Gnomes. He took a hit in the time it took her to find her feet and Kagome found all of Inuyasha's more colorful language running through her head as she tried to get between him and the Stone Gnomes while he fought another Boulder Golem.

She could see the double whammy coming and she had a hold of her belt but she couldn't remember if her sword was in the third or the second pocket. Her mind blank Kagome knew Souta was going to cry and stamp on her grave but she wouldn't regret taking these hits for him.

Then to her utter shock Captain flashed between her and the Gnomes.

His face was composed and calm, he was almost giving her a smile.

He was saying goodbye.

A scream escaped from her lips and her groping hand found her sword, but the picks were already peeking out at her through his body. The red shards were drifting away from him and Kagome hated him because in that moment he was saying what he'd never said to her in life. He liked her, he liked her enough he was pretty sure he loved her.

He shattered and it was just her, Suke-Oniki who was at Souta's side and her back, and her dumb brother.

Rage and fear blurred together and Kagome just wanted all those damned monsters dead already, was three of her group not enough?!

Lashing out at the four in front of her she was stunned when her sword lit up with a blue-violet glow rather than the normal pink of her skill.

Then the attack cut through all four and they fell to pieces.

Shocked, half an explanation already forming in her head she spun such that she was in front of her brother and Suke-Oniki and facing the last six or so monsters. Ignoring at the sounds from behind her she just thrust her still glowing blade at the monsters and in a shape much like arrows the glow leapt from the blade and struck down each of the monsters.

The room spun around her and she let her body give way underneath her, she had just used her miko powers. Flopping over on her back she started to laugh even as Souta and Suke-Oniki's forms blurred above her.

That was when she saw her stats, not what she had just gained for surviving this but her remaining hit points. She was down to just ten left, she was a tiny sliver of remaining life.

How?

Her body stopped shaking with laughter and suddenly she could hear Souta and Suke-Oniki.

"You had better snap out of it sis!"

Kagome blinked up at them, and she was amused in vague way when they realized she had stopped laughing, the uncertainty was funny.

"Souta if you ever loose your head like that again I will take it off myself."

He swelled up, anger turning his face more blotchy then it already was. "I'm not the one turning myself into a human shield or using a sword I knew might break at the wrong moment! I just lost my first friend and saw two other human beings die!"

Kagome felt her eyes drift closed, her heart hurt for her brother. She knew she had seen atrocities he had never and likely would never see but she had never lost a best friend. Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, even Shippo had been better equipped to survive than her. If anyone would have died back than she likely would have been the first.

"Damn it Archer open your eyes!"

Letting her eyes flutter open Kagome could already feel her battle healing feeding her points back. "I'm not dead dummy. I just feel like I got dragged on quest all around Japan again."

Suke-Oniki's eyes flicked from her to Souta and back again. "You know how you killed those monsters don't you?"

Kagome hesitated for a moment before just going with, "Shrine. We live on a shrine. I'm an actually miko, powers and the abilities to see demons and ghosts. That 'attack' was my powers finding a way to manifest in the game."

She let her eyes close again, she had killed all the monsters and in spite of not getting hit again had almost died. Why?

Her powers obliviously. Purification. Sacrificial type ability. In order for them to work in the game when they weren't programed, they worked their way in when they could. She took hit points away from herself and used them in a double or triple way to take them away from monsters.

Probably about the only way the computer could calculate how much damage she was doing.

Her soul didn't have a level after all.

That was when the sound of the door opening startled her, her eyes flying open she heard Zangetsu's voice, he was calling her name.

Then he and Chad stopped, their footsteps halted and she knew they had taken a head count. Tilting her head back she could see the horror tinted sympathy on his face. He knew Captain, he knew Naruto and he knew Daono. They were as friendly with him as she was.

"Get us out of here Zangetsu."

He moved over to her side and helped her brother pull her to her feet, then was the one to sling her arm over his shoulder to keep her steady.

"What the hell happened Archer?"

"What did Yasha's note say?"

"Directions about how to find you and an s.o.s saying you were trapped."

"You couldn't use teleportation crystals. It was a trap."

The silence spoke for it's self, she knew he was thinking about his own close calls and how she had, had three times the number of people he had.

**April 17th Floor 27 4:31 p.m.**

Kagome thumped down the stairs of the inn they were staying the night at, Souta had finally fallen asleep but only after spending two hours grieving for his friends. She understood and had cried with him but once again she was stuck on the difference between his experience and hers. Kagome ached for her brother, but she still knew compared to her brother what she felt was different, more regret and less 'why did this happen?' She already knew the great truth, shit happens. And it happens to good people, but today she didn't think she fell among that number. She was almost healed, her battle healing skill was working wonders but at the moment she could had done with feeling a bit more wounded, then she might have been able to sleep.

Finding Zangetsu and the barkeep the only two in the common room, she slouched over to join him at his table. She could see in his normally hard face that he felt some kind of pity for her and tonight she couldn't handle that. What she wanted to do was get drunk, she had been drunk twice, once on that fog while traveling with Inuyasha and the day she had realized she had missed her chance to stay with Inuyasha. Forgetting sounded damned nice at the moment. The only problem was you couldn't get properly drunk here, you could drink and it would taste like what you ordered but other then getting a buzz you couldn't get drunk enough to pass out.

Flopping down in the chair next to him Kagome didn't think about it. "Bring me two bottles of sake."

The inn owner was a normal generated character, after this was no longer the front line you might be able to find more privately owned inns but on the front lines it was all NPC run.

"I'm not planning on drinking."

"Good because I didn't order it for you."

There was a pause and the NPC placed everything on the table and went back behind the bar, Kagome poured her first cup and sipped it, it was sake in taste and there was even the normal warmth running down her throat but she knew even as she readied the second it wouldn't give her what she needed. Not with everything running around and swirling in her head; three of her guild dead, some how she had some sort of Miko power here in the game and she had almost died today even if it was to save her brother.

"I didn't take you for the kind of girl who drunk sake."

Looking up she took in Zangetsu's scowl, laughing she sipped the second and then poured herself a third. "I have been drunk two times in my life: The first was not my fault, I didn't even know I was drunk until me and my friends were trying to forget how stupid we all acted. The second was the day I realized I had missed my chance with man I loved."

She downed the third, and poured her forth. "I wanted to finish school. I was too young to run away with him. My family would worry and wonder what happened to me. In the end I think the real reason I'm bitter is because I know deep down even if I would have died for him I was scared. The worst part is I think he knew. I hate to think he knows deep down I was afraid of what would happen to us if I didn't finish school, if I didn't grow up."

Drinking deeply she enjoyed the heat warming her frozen insides. The sake and the company gave her something to feel other then resentment or fear or even the fact she knew that fear had been edged with glee, the kind that came from living on the tip of a blade. "I had many friends once upon a time who enjoyed the warmth of sake and at the time I didn't truly understand it but as of today I think I do. Fear is nothing new, death is nothing, but no bodies... it troubles me. I know when we get out we can visit the graves, and speak to the families of the brave. But I find myself most angry about the fact is that death is so sanitized. The red spray is laughable, and there is none of the smell..."

Kagome tried to put a leash on her tongue but she knew by now; just as she had edge most players had to learn, Zangetsu and Chad were just like her, they knew what violence was like outside.

Zangetsu's expression was deep and dark but the pity had died out and now he looked at her considering what she had just told him. While he thought Kagome tried to contain the frustration, her anger, the sadness. It was grief and she knew it, and with the mild buzz of Sake she knew the things she had been thinking about when it came to Zangetsu and Chad were spilling over and things were falling out of her mouth. Finishing the first bottle Kagome tried to keep her focus, three of her people had died today. One of them for her.

Frustration surged and she flung the empty bottle to ground, it broke and the shards hovered in the air for a moment before fading away. Taking the second bottle she started on it, she didn't want to think it but the way Zangetsu was studying her made her nervous.

The guilt pinged and Kagome shut her eyes trying to stop thinking about the soft way Captain had looked at her before shattering. She had known he liked her, she had ignored the one advance he'd made towards her, then no doubt he'd seen the way any guy who flirted with her had the door slammed in his face. Some of it was her first mission was to get her brother out of here, that was her first thought. Her second was the fear, the feelings she still struggled with over Inuyasha. She loved him, but she didn't think it was pure. Not really, it might have been at the start of everything but she had no doubt it was tainted at least with her own doubts and Inuyasha's split feelings.

That had been why she came back, she wanted to test it, to see if she was still willing to live without electricity. To live some place where she was going to die years before she would in her own time. The answer had been yes. On the day after her graduation ceremony the only future she could see was with him but when she took her pack and stood over the well she found she had waited too long, the power left over from the jewel has drained away. Thinking back she had been able to realized if she had picked a day sooner, just a day before she could have gone.

But now all the power left was a moment enough to say good bye, Inuyasha had been on the other side of the well, he must have smelled her. He asked if she was coming and she had said she had taken too long. He'd been quiet and then said live well. She had felt his voice wrap around her, and linger in her ears before the connection had faded. She hadn't even gotten to tell him the same.

She stopped bothering to pour cups and started to drink straight from the bottle, trying to wash away the bitter taste.

Kagome wondered some times if Kikyo's doomed unhappiness lingered in her.

All the men who she either loved or loved her were never free to be happy with her there.

Her bottle ran dry and after opening her eyes to glare at it in irritation she set it back on the table. "Bartender another bottle."

Setting her arms on the table she couldn't help glancing out of the corner of her eye at Zangetsu. He was frowning thoughtfully at the table, the bottle was dropped in front of her and she opened it. Flicking the top off across the table she took a sip, Zangetsu then surprised her by sighing. Looking at him confused, she was startled when he stood up grabbed her arm and started dragging her outside.

"What are you doing?!"

Outside she couldn't help but flinch at the light, she believed with all her heart fake world or not it should have been raining.

"Drink isn't going to do what you want and I don't want to talk where someone could walk in."

"Oh." Kagome looked at the bottle she was still clutching, it was true it wasn't going remove the pain she was feeling but she might postpone the serious soul searching she was going to have to do. Captain's death and the love in his actions had spent her back into the emotional tailspin she had only been starting to climb out of in the real world.

Sighing she took a swig and started walking faster so Zangetsu wouldn't be dragging her. "Where do you have in mind?"

His eyes flicked to her and away again. "I'm heading to the edge of the forest, it's away from trails and having been on this floor for several days I doubt too many will be off the beaten path at this time."

Kagome nodded, conceding to his points.

The walk, all of fifteen minutes long, was silent after Kagome learned where he had in mind. Her thoughts were veering wildly between the thought he would lecture her, the next was... _influenced_ was probably the word she was going to use, by the alcohol. He wasn't the sort to try and comfort her using his body. At least not_ that_ way.

She also knew if he lectured her about why she shouldn't drink... actually she couldn't decide if that would kill her fondness for him or lead to her beating the crap out of him. Tears were also possible.

She knew however this went it would probably decide their future.

And she was drunk.

Trying to not think unladylike words she couldn't help but find some of her turmoil fading with the peaceful woods, the way the light was shining down reminded her the woods by the well on the other side on the beautiful days when she'd crossover just after school.

Zangetsu stopped at a small, not really a clearing, but a place where the trees gave them a good five feet of distance. Leaning against a tree he crossed his arms and looked at her thoughtfully, wishing he'd picked a time when she wasn't buzzed she decided now was a good time to set the bottle down.

Setting it down she decided to sit at the base of the tree, he was taller than her anyway, standing wouldn't give her that much of an advantage. Plus she had just drunk two full bottles of sake by herself. Yep she was an idiot.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time.

"how... How do you know what death looks like outside?"

Slightly startled that was his first question she supposed it was as good a place to start as any. He would get to how she knew him for what he was later. "I am a..." Blurting it out? _Stupid!_ "I might say something you don't believe but bear with me."

His face's expression didn't change much, but his scowl deepened a touch. Likely because he wanted to pay close attention to what she said.

What was he going to believe? Mentally running in panicked circles she went with a half truth, and that's what it was - not a half lie. "I have some memories of a past life. Vivid, and... Horrible. I remember great battle fields: so big, with so many dead there weren't enough people left alive to bury the dead. Yet I could eat lunch right by them. As long as the wind wasn't blowing my way. I have strong recollections of fighting and being drenched in blood, others and my own. I remember how I died, I was attacked and thought the man I was in love with had done it. I went after him with my dying strength and cursed him. I remember a lot of things about being a feudal era Miko."

"Then you must remember dealing with ghosts."

Frowning a little she looked up at him and found him watching her with a great deal of intensity.

"Yes, ghosts of a sort. Demons and revived dead as well."

That has him looking a touch puzzled. "I... I'll ask about that later."

Shaking those thoughts away he moved on. "So you have powers of sort."

"I'm a miko, same powers, with a couple extra. She was a brilliant archer and I learned to be one as well."

Zangetsu smirked at that, "Guess we know how you picked a name don't we Archer."

Rolling her eyes at him she figured this wasn't so bad, so she gave in to her desire to sleep dreamlessly tonight and took another swig of sake.

He pursed his lips and she found something in his eyes, not sympathy, but more like compassion.

"So how did you pick me and Chad out as being different?"

Kagome grunted, it was laughably obvious if you looked or had a clue what to look for. "It isn't obvious to you?"

He frowned and shook his head.

"I was mistaken for a beater at a couple points after joining the front line, and I bet you were too and the answer is because: First boss fight, first big fight. They're afraid. Most master it and fight on but those who have played before, those who had risked their lives before either don't have that hesitation far as anyone can see or shake it off much quicker. Plus..." She added it to be fair. Struggling to her feet, Kagome noticed the sake bottle was most of the way empty. Strange she didn't remember drinking more than a sip or two.

"Archer?"

Lifting her head up she realized she had been staring into her bottle. "Oh, right."

Carefully putting her sake bottle down she was slightly amused that she had to think about bending over. In the real world a bottle of good stuff would get her to this point. Here it took three bottles. That done she straightened with care and drew her sword, Zangetsu raised an eye brow at her but she just brought up a screen and sent him the invite for a Duel. First strike would do for this fight.

He looked at her, his eyebrow almost seeming to ask for him.

That got her to start giggling, the idea of his eyebrows being something alive and moving on their own while on his face was goofy. Mastering herself as he accepted she waited that sixty seconds then attacked, since he was curious he just blocked it when he could have counter attacked or used her drunken state against her.

"That is what I'm talking about."

His face furrowed in confusion and she smirked at him and attacked again, not using her skill, and even though she was a two handed fighter she used only one. Then he got it she could see it in his face.

"You move faster than the skills, you attack without the skill glow. It might kick in a moment later but we're already moving."

He nodded and that was when she attacked, going for surprise, getting in a small slice across his nose.

It was enough to end the duel.

**Ichigo April 17th 4:59 p.m.**

Staring at the drunk girl before him he couldn't deny part of why he'd been so curious after she saved them that first time was he had seen her attack without a skill guiding her. So thinking he'd been the only one to notice such things was stupid, wasn't it?

But it wasn't the only way he knew and she had pointed it out herself. Even if it was silently. 'You know what death looks like.' he did. That he did. Sighing he decided it was time to stop kidding himself. He had a thing for her, and not a little thing but like….

Urahara had ruined him.

And Yoruichi.

Probably Matsumoto too.

He knew way too many perverts not have a dirty mind. Not that he probably wouldn't have felt the same way without them. Archer was flat out hot. End of story. He'd seen her beating guys off with a stick, and done it with a completely bored face too. She wasn't the kind of girl to be bought with flattery.

Which on second thought was good for him because he didn't know the first thing about flattery.

But that attraction he'd felt for her made sense even if he hadn't realized it right away, they had a lot in common. She knew about horrors most couldn't imagine and he knew about that too. The woman he was afraid he might already be in half in love with seemed to be frowning into her third sake bottle. He was pretty sure it was because it was empty.

Ichigo sighed again and ran a hand over his face, he wanted to talk to her about his past, he wanted to comfort her, he wanted to kiss her, not that this was the time. But seeing her trying to act normal and not cry made him hurt for her. She lead a group and it seemed like she thought that meant she had to do all the comforting and take nothing back. Those deaths weren't her fault, it was a trap, that was what it was meant to do, kill. It was only her bad luck her group found it first.

He got what she'd been talking about earlier, she wanted to drink away her pain and if he'd been old enough to drink when his mother died he had no doubt he would have become a full blown alcoholic. She said she had only done it to dull the first bit of pain.

Aw hell. Pinching the bridge of his nose Ichigo found himself momentarily glad he didn't seem to be able to contact or hear Zangetsu and his hollow. He didn't like thinking about how he felt and why he felt that way if he could help it, and commentary would have been irritating.

Sliding down the tree at his back he looked up at her waiting to see what she would do. She looked at him taking a minute before deciding to come and sit closer to him. Watching her pick her away over like she was doing a difficult task was amusing but at the same time all he wanted to do was explain a few things to her.

Once she was settled, she looked at him a cute look of curiosity on her face. Trying to focus, he found his mouth was dry. Damn. He was taking too long to start talking. she was starting to look awkward. "Me and Chad will be joining your guild."

Too abrupt. She looked startled just then, and now she looked like she was confused. Wait a moment she's drunk... now she's teared up. He didn't want her to cry but it probably was unavoidable, three people died under her command today.

Sniffling she's wiping at her eyes trying to hide her feelings again. This habit was kinda annoying, they were alone, she could cry, he wouldn't really blame her even if he didn't have a clue what to do to help her feel better.

"You-sniff- would join a guild that just got cut in half. -sniff- And take orders from a girl?"

"Yeah..." he ran a hand through his hair thinking about how he feared girls a lot more than men. "I will have no trouble with that last part. Unless you're wrong. Then – it doesn't matter who you are or how tough you are. I'll never agree."

She was staring intently at him, a little smirk on her lips now. This reminded him of some of the eleventh squad members, they would go from blissful drunk to ripping your head off. Luckily she didn't seem to be violently inclined.

"That sounds like back story."

Ichigo tilted his head back resting it against the tree. "Yeah it would be back story. In the real world I have the scars to prove it."

"Scars hun? I have a few of those myself."

Look back at her it was his turn to smirk. "Bet I have way more than you."

But instead of smirking back she narrowed her eyes at him and frowned almost managing to look threatening. "Why? Because I'm a girl and can't handle pain?"

His eyes went wide, that was not what he meant at all. "No. I would never say that about girls, my friend Rukia would kill me. But I doubt you can top some of the injuries I've had."

"You would probably be right however I bet I've seen stranger injuries. Not to mention my love..."

She was looking conflicted now, a bit angry, a lot sad and rather drunk. She had mentioned having been in love before, admittedly she would not be the only person he knew to have fallen in love at a young age however he couldn't say the same thing. He figured a lot of it was he wanted a woman who could not only take care of herself (Rukia came to mind) he wanted someone soft and loving (Yuzu and his mother were his ideals in that one) he also couldn't help but hope she'd be hot too. There were a lot women that came to mind there; Archer was the new forefront on that list.

"My first love Inuyasha."

She had said that last bit strongly, like she was saying it out loud for the first time. She had been cold to other guys who asked her out or tried to flirt, was that guy why? Wait – Inuyasha? "Your brother's screen name?"

She giggled. "He was – ahem. He was my brother's hero, and a I don't blame him, a..."

Her expression was a funny mix of bewilderment and frustration.

"What's wrong now?"

She looked at him and her face was a mask of disbelief. "I don't know how to even start explaining without sounding nuts!"

He laughed, the startled sound in her voice, the over-the-top reaction all added up to her being inebriated. "I know the feeling. It's hard to explain how I'm even alive now after everything I've been through. You don't get stabbed in the chest as many times as I have and live. I've often wondered what would happen if I have to go to a hospital for some normal reason and they saw all the scars."

Archer started laughing. "I know the feeling, my grandpa made up stupid excuses so no one would question why I missed school but he used old people reasons so I wondered what would happen if someone hired me and saw my supposed medical history."

Her giggles were starting to sound more like sobs and tears were starting to run down her face. Ichigo hurt for her but didn't want her to keep bottling everything up. Even now she was trying to wipe the tears away and stop crying.

Mentally scrambling he decided the only thing he could do that would let her just keep crying was hug her. He comforted his sisters by giving them hugs so it should work... Hopefully she wouldn't hit him. Gently reaching out Ichigo was startled by how easily Archer let him pull her close to give her hug. There was a moment where he couldn't help but notice for a game she felt like a real person, he could feel her trembling as she tried not to cry. Then she started laughing into her tears, frozen Ichigo let her pull away. He was embarrassed and afraid she was laughing at him and it was only looking down into her face he got it. She was laughing because she was embarrassed about crying.

I need to say something. Anything. Words. Comforting words. um. um... "It's okay to cry you know."

Idiot, that wasn't very comforting. Crap, now she's crying harder! Frantic and wishing he could some how smack himself, he kept talking. "I know when my friends got hurt I always beat myself up and I know if one of them had died..." he trailed off.

If one of his friends had died because he had taken them to Soul Society or Hueco Mundo he probably would have done more than cry. It was a bad habit but he really did tend to blame himself for everything.

"You don't get it."

The choked words confused him, looking down he felt a jolt in stomach when he met her tear stained blue eyes. More tears escaped her eyes as he looked at her, her arms resting on his lap supporting her as she looked up at him.

"I'm crying because I'm angry with Captain, and I'm also so damn grateful."

She tilted her head back down and wiped at her eyes, it didn't stop fresh tears from forming but he got the feeling the eye contact between them was too much for her at the moment.

"I killed Naruto when I ordered him to stay by the door, he was cut off from us and died first." she took a deep breath and he noticed the shudders got stronger.

"I had tried to get to him through that hoard, that huge room was just filled, every step I took I had to kill something. Yasha was being protected by the others while he got that message off, so he..."

Staring into Archer's half hidden face he was startled when she looked up her eyes almost burning into him. "You need to understand - I don't care if I make it out but I will do everything and anything to get my brother out. If you join my guild I can't promise I wouldn't let you die to save him."

Ichigo felt like the world had just shifted, everything had just come to focus on the girl in his lap. Most would have felt hesitation, or fear, three people had just died and she was saying in her world it was almost okay because her brother survived. But deep down he knew he had just met the first girl who would understand why and how he spent his own powers; Rukia understood on one level, all his friends did but this woman understood the darker side of that. She had just said she would go to hell and back for her brother's sake.

A laugh escaped him, he didn't mean to but how do you answer that? "Good thing I feel that way about my sisters."

Then a moment of reflection reminded him he felt that way about anyone he cared about. "And my friends. My dad... he's on his own."

There was a moment where he could see awe in her eyes, she knew he understood. Then the tears were back. "I wouldn't ask but..."

Her breathing was getting uneven and he could tell her throat had closed up on her, since she hadn't pushed away or pulled from him he figured she wouldn't mind him rubbing her back. He didn't know how long he just sat there and rubbed her back but her heaving shoulders didn't stop and nor did the sensation of dampness.

Then just like that her breathing slowed, and then the tension in her back died away and she went limp. Startled he stared at her, she had fallen asleep? Slowly he moved her hair and yes, she had fallen asleep. Looking at her Ichigo was almost as surprised that she had fallen asleep, as he was by the feelings her implied trust inspired with him.

Falling asleep in front of a player like this could lead to a sleep P.K. To just fall asleep like this said she didn't think she was in any danger at all. He hoped. Actually he was pretty much sunk, he'd liked her since he saw her, then she saved his and Chad's asses, another thing to like about her. Then there was this. If she could cook he figured he was screwed. Completely. Sunk.

Covering his eyes he tried to figure out why he thought spending more time with her was a good idea. He wanted to get home to his sisters and all of his friends, she wanted to get out of here with her brother. Not to mention she seemed still hung up over that Inuyasha, oh and she habit of turning guys and girls down flat.

Falling for her here and now was dumb, incredibly dumb.

He should stop thinking.

"Damn it." Heaving a deep breath he decided Chad would distract him, but first he needed to get Archer back to the inn. Gently shaking her shoulder he was concerned when she didn't stir, then he remembered how much sake she had drunk. Oh.

"Archer!"

She started stirring at that: "Five mo..."

"Wake up."

"-minutes."

"Come on we need to get back to town."

Her eyes blinked open, but he could tell she wasn't focused, but some how it was cute. "Archer you need to stand up so I can get you back to bed."

"Ooooh." she pushed up and Ichigo squirmed, that hand pressing in his hip like that was dangerous. But she managed to get herself sitting upright, and when he got up glad this world didn't have pins and needles she offered him her hand. He pulled her up. She stumbled into him but managed to stay upright, so they walked back to the inn. That was when Ichigo realized just how long they had been out, the sun was almost completely set. Chad was going to be looking for him.

Of course with Archer hanging off him the twenty-ish minute walk took twice that so it was full dark by the time he could see the inn. Knowing Archer wouldn't want to be seen like this, he certainly wouldn't, he took her in the side door that went straight to the stairs to the bedrooms. It was a good thing he had been here when she rented the rooms, other wise he'd need to ask her and she didn't seem to be in any condition to answer him. The stairs were a bit harder for Archer to manage and it was only the likelihood that she would scream if he tried to carry her like that, that kept him from scooping her.

Finally in front of her room Ichigo was glad to see she knew where they were because she pulled her key out, helping her unlock the door he pulled her the rest of the way in, once she was inside he handed her the key.

"Lock the door behind me."

Staring at her until she nodded, he then managed to smile at her. "See you in the morning."

Closing the door behind him, he waited for her lock it behind him and at the snick he headed back down the stairs. Chad should be in the common room ordering dinner for the two of them. Pausing just outside the doorway he tried to collect himself. That last hour had been a bit more emotional then he had planned on.

Running a hand over his face he let his breath out in a big whoosh. He had picked a really bad time to fall in love. There had to be irony in this, falling for a girl who had no time for him was straight out of a manga. Heaving in another deep breath he walked into the common room and found Chad sitting at a table by the kitchen, walking over he was amused by Chad's zen like attitude towards him disappearing on him.

Going through the now crowded room he joined Chad, the noise meant he and Chad would have to be listened to on purpose or no one would be able to hear the whole thing. "I told Archer we'd be joining the Guildless."

Chad's grunt mixed with his friend's raised eyebrow was equivalent to a question.

"Yeah like you're surprised, after today her guild is hurting and we knew after floor twenty-five we needed to find a group in the next five floors."

The snort spoke volumes. Really Chad? Mocking skepticism was not helpful no matter what Ishida said. "And of course I want to pick her guild because she's hot."

Chad just stared at him.

"You're really not being fair, of course I know what my other reasons are. So stop asking."

His friend's deadpan made him want to punch him, taking a deep breath and forcing his eyebrow to stop ticking Ichigo then let all that air out. "If you don't want to join her I can't make you."

His best friend held his stare for a moment longer before letting out a low chuckle. "As long as you're sure."

Ichigo crossed his arms and glared, teasing him again. Sometimes he sort of resented Chad's room-mate's humor. Chad had learned some annoying habits. Huffing he knew Chad did it to lighten the mood, but really he wasn't in a bad mood or even down, he just was cursing how his live resembled a manga. "You order dinner yet?"

"Nope."

Sighing he stood and went to barkeep and ordered dinner for Chad and him, getting back to the table he was surprised when Chad asked him a question like the conversation hadn't been interrupted.

"So is it really going to be okay if she and the Guildless see?"

"Hun?" He slumped into his seat mildly confused.

"Fullbring."

"Oh..." he thought about it, this could be a deal breaker but if she remembered a past life, and felt sure she could tell him that, even if she was drunk he could probably let her in on his and Chad's little cheat card. Admittedly they had quickly learned the down side of using their abilities, they had half an hour of fighting before the bonus state of Fullbring ended and they were left with their stats halved for the next fight. "That's not going to be a problem, I have a feeling she has a few secrets of her own."

After all why would she tell him about being a miko? Why would it matter in the game? When she had said she was an archer... No like he and Chad, she had probably mentioned it because one day she would do something outside of the game rules.

That was when he noticed Chad smirking at him, he put it together quickly. He had gone missing. He had a thing for a girl who was grieving. He had just said they could trust her with something so secret they had only used it three times. Oh and on top of that he had just admitted to Chad that the time he'd been gone he'd been with her. His cheek were beet red and he knew it. "You pervert."

His friend's smile widened.

Glaring he tried to stop blushing. "You have spent far too much time with Urahara and Keigo."

Chad started to snicker. But not before he threw out a come back of his own. "Who's the one who realized how it sounded?"

"Just.. just shut up and wait for dinner."

**April 18th Floor 27 6:56 a.m.**

The light burned her eyes and just like that she was awake. Confused she rolled away and realized she was still in her battle clothes and that pinch in her side was her sword.

Oh right. I drank three bottles of sake and talked to Zangetsu.

Shit! Thinking franticly she sat up and tried to remember everything said, had she admitted her crush? no... but she had cried all over him. And... and admitted she'd let him die if it meant her brother made it out. Idiot! Cursing herself she wondered if after that he'd still want to be part of Guildless. Sure he'd said he'd feel that way about his sisters but they weren't here and to see them again he'd have to make it out.

Sighing she ran a hand over her face, that reminded her that it had been far too long since she took a hot bath, or even a shower. That was going to be one of her favorite things about getting a club house, now it was just a luxury because here you didn't really need to bath. Actually thinking about it made her squirm every time. After all she had no way of knowing if she was getting washed outside or not.

Shaking her head she went to the small wash stand and wiped her face and arms down, at the moment that would have to do, tomorrow she'd plan on going to the hot springs on the twenty-first floor. Ready for the day ahead she knew today would be them visiting the obelisk on the first floor, and then she ask for a vote about going to the dungeon for the afternoon.

Walking down the stairs she was surprised to find Zangetsu and Chad sitting with her two boys. Had she not scared them off?

Nervous and wishing she didn't feel so mortified she went to edge of the table. "Morning."

Zangetsu looked up at her his normal scowl in place. "Morning. What do you want for breakfast?"

Kagome felt off balance, not straight to the point? No weird looks for being a selfish person. No reaction to what happened last night? He wasn't any more interested in dating then she was. That was it. Or he'd never been interested in her from the start. Focus you love sick baka! "Normal stuff. I don't really feel like eating."

Zangetsu nodded his head and stood up to order her food.

Sitting down next to her brother she greeted Chad. "Morning Chad."

"Archer."

They sat in silence until Zangetsu came back, he sat down at his place again and started the discussion for the day's plans.

"What is the plan for the day Archer?"

Looking at him she looked at Chad and then back again. "You still plan on joining us?"

"Yep."

She looked at Chad and he gave a nod with a serious look on his face.

"Okay... You know the guild policies?"

The two of the shook their heads.

"Yasha fill them in, I'm gonna eat."

The NPC dropped her breakfast in front of her, picking at it she was glad to know Souta seemed to have no problem with the two joining them so soon. Suke-Oniki seemed somber but he didn't seem upset that they were talking membership now.

They spent twenty or so minutes talking about the guild and Kagome tried to eat but in the end she only managed half of her plate. "You guys still in?"

Zangetsu tilted his head and almost smirked. "You keep asking that and one might think you were trying to get rid of us."

Kagome stared at him before deadpanning. "Oh, no, I've been discovered."

Suke-Oniki snorted and Souta elbowed her.

Rolling her eyes, she just shrugged. "Excuse me for being a bit doubtful."

"Still, sign us up."

Shaking her head she sent them the invites, very quickly both of them opened the invites and hit accept.

Kagome felt the little knot of fear relax, he had meant it. But on the other hand getting over her crush either just got that much harder, or easier.


End file.
